Elgin’s Gregor Ewan and Lossiemouth’s Jim Gault, who played integral roles in winning Great Britain’s wheelchair curling bronze medal in the Sochi Winter Paralympics, have been honoured for their achievements.
The two were ever-presents in GB’s march through the round-robin stages and then played their part in the 7-3 victory against China in the bronze-medal play-off.
As this weekend’s Moray international bonspiel got under way, the Moray province curling development group made a presentation to mark the pair’s success in Sochi.
Ewan said: “This was definitely the highlight of my curling career so far. I don’t think I will ever play in front of a bigger audience than that, both in the stadium and to the millions of viewers watching.
“We were hearing snippets from people back home that everyone was tuning in to watch us play and also wanted to have a go at curling.
“It really was good to know that we did have a lot of support back home.”
The 42-year-old has rarely let his medal leave his side, when he added: “It is without doubt my proudest possession, it is a great feeling to have won the medal.”
Gault was a late addition to the squad and the 59-year-old said: “I narrowly missed out on selection for the squad but when Tom Killin was ruled out though illness I was drafted in.
“I got the phone call and had to drop everything and go.
“For Moray to have two representatives in the GB squad really was something.
“The real turning point came when we were 6-2 down to the United States with only two ends left. We knew we had to do it and when we came up with a five in the penultimate end, we kicked-on from there.
“We had watched David Murdoch and Eve Muirhead and their team reach the podium in the Winter Olympics a fortnight earlier, they were our inspiration.
“We wanted to match their achievements if we could, and thankfully we did.”