Scotland’s men and women will begin the European Curling Championship on Saturday looking to right the wrongs of 12 months ago.
In Lohja last November, the top-seeded Team Mouat were beaten in the final by Germany and came home with silver, while Team Morrison returned with bronze after edging out Italy.
Both rinks will go for gold at the same venue in Finland over the next eight days, with both determined to upgrade the colour this time.
“I felt like we settled for the minimum last year because we’d had such a fantastic week,” lead Rebecca Morrison said.
“This year, we’re really excited because we know we’re capable and we’d love to go in and win it.”
That excitement was echoed by men’s third Grant Hardie, who conceded that Team Mouat are “still hurting a little bit” after last year.
“We had a really dominant week and came up short in the final, so we’d like to put that right,” he said.
While the Europeans will be the focus for now, the prospect of the Winter Olympics will hang over this event for both rinks.
Both Team Mouat and Team Morrison will go into February’s Games in Milan-Cortina with designs on clambering on to the podium, with the former going into the event as heavy favourites after claiming silver in 2022.
The format of the Europeans – round-robin matches followed by semi-finals and a final – replicates that of the Olympics, while many of their rivals will also be in Finland, which makes it ideal preparation for what lies ahead.
“It is a sort of final tune-up in that environment and a real good test of where we’re at before February,” Hardie added.
“We’ve been on a really hot run and we don’t want to let our opponents see any kind of weaknesses by slipping up. We want to remind them that we are hopefully going to be the team to beat come February.”
