Eve Muirhead fired a warning to her 2014 Winter Olympics rivals after steering her all-conquering Scotland team into the final of the European curling championships in Stavanger yesterday.
Scotland eased past Switzerland 10-3 with two ends to spare to stretch their 100% record to 10 games after going unbeaten through the group stage.
This was a 10th successive victory for Muirhead and her team of Anna Sloan, Vicky Adams and Claire Hamilton. Scotland will play either Switzerland – again – or Sweden in this morning’s final as they look to add another major title to the world crown they won earlier this year.
Muirhead said: “We are working hard as a team and stamping down a marker before the Olympic Games.
“It’s good that the Canadians will be looking up at the scores and seeing that we’re dominating.
“It also stamps down a marker for them – we’re sending them a message, too.”
Muirhead’s rink was so dominant against the Swiss their opponents sought to end the game prematurely when they trailed 10-2 after the seventh end.
Reminded competition rules dictated a minimum of eight ends had to be played, Swiss skip Mirjam Ott took a single point before belatedly being allowed to leave the ice rink.
Muirhead added: “It feels great.
“This will be my fourth European final in a row.
“We’re unbeaten so far this week so we can’t complain, but we’ve still got to finish the job off.”
Scotland made the early breakthrough in the fourth end.
With an earlier stone sitting at the back of the house, Muirhead had a hit and stay on a Swiss stone in the front of the house to claim two shots and take a 3-1 lead.
In the fifth end, Swiss skip Mirjam Ott was heavy with her last stone, giving Scotland a steal of three and a 6-1 lead.
The Swiss took a single in the sixth end to cut the Scottish lead to 6-2 and, in the seventh, Muirhead played boldly, producing two straight raises of her own stones to score four shots and effectively end the game.
At this point the teams shook hands, only to be reminded by the umpire that playing out eight ends is mandatory at this stage of the event.
The eighth end was a quiet affair and Ott finally drew for one and a final score of 10-3 to Scotland before the teams shook hands for real this time.
Sweden beat Denmark by 10-2 to go on to the semi-final against Switzerland, with the Scots facing the winners of that for gold.
The Scots have only played a full 10 ends three times this week and Muirhead acknowledged the dominating form her team has been showing, saying “We came out to do that. I think it shows we’re working hard.”
After their last-stone upset 6-5 loss to Denmark in their page play-off, David Murdoch’s Scottish men will play for bronze medals today at the same time as the women’s final.