Winter Olympics 2022: British curlers Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat miss out on bronze medal to Sweden

Britain’s mixed curlers had arrived in Beijing as one of the team’s few realistic hopes for gold but Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat ended seven days of competition without a medal after losing their bronze-medal match to Sweden.

The British pair had come agonisingly close to a spot in the final in a tight last-four encounter against Norway the previous day.

But on Tuesday aside from an early 1-0 lead in the first end, the British duo were entirely outclassed by Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson.

Afterwards, Mouat said: “We just got off to a bad start which punished us. We had to fight back from that. We’re just going to have to console ourselves because we’ve got a big week with both our teams. We’re both ready for that.”

A stunning final stone on the second end by de Val gave the Swedes, who themselves have been outplayed in the previous round against Italy, a 4-1 advantage.

And when they pulled off a steal of three at the next end, a comeback looked highly improbable from the world champions, whose performance was notable for a series of costly errors.

The match did not make it to its regular conclusion, the 9-3 deficit after six ends deemed insurmountable.

Both Dodds and Mouat will return to competition in the respective women’s and men’s team events.

And Dodds said: “It’s hard to fight back when your opposition is playing that well. Congratulations to them on wining the bronze. They played amazing today.”