GB men into Olympic curling final as women squeezed out

Bruce Mouat and his rink have guaranteed Team GB's fourth medal of these Winter Olympics after seeing off unbeaten Switzerland 8-5 to reach the men's curling final in Cortina. The British quartet - who are the reigning world champions - will face Canada in Saturday's final (18:05 GMT), looking to upgrade the silver medal they won four years ago in Beijing.

But that is the least these four Scots will achieve in these Games in Italy. Mouat, Grant Hardie, Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie came here top of the world rankings and targeting nothing other than what the emotional skip called "our gold medal" in the immediate aftermath.

And for all they struggled in the round robin and only earned their place in the medal-matches thanks to Italy losing on Thursday morning, they now stand one step away from achieving that ambition. "It will be the biggest match of our lives and we're so excited to get that opportunity again," vice-skip Grant Hardie told BBC Sport.

However, Britain's women had their own dreams shattered earlier in the day in the most dramatic of circumstances. Rebecca Morrison's rink needed to beat Italy​ in their final round-robin match, and they did. The other part of the equation was that Switzerland had to overcome the United States.

But the Swiss were unable to do their bit - despite coming from three down to force a nerve-shredding extra end - rendering Britain's 7-4 victory over the hosts moot. Winter Olympics day 13 - Live What do curlers do when they're not at the Olympics?

Meet the 61-year-old moonwalking ice rink sensation Mistakes and magic swing epic contest Having a shot at any colour of medal looked beyond the heavily-touted British men as recently as Wednesday morning. But their most accomplished performance to date - against the United States - served notice of their threat and they came into the matches that matter most, stress-tested in a way the Swiss had not been.

Indeed, the closest Yannick Schwaller's men had come to defeat here was in being taken to an extra end by the GB quartet on Sunday. But Switzerland had played on this sheet earlier in the day and initially adapted better to the conditions, taking two in the second to cleave open an advantage.

In other matches this week, a slow start has cost the British rink but they responded much better this time, Mouat levelling the scores with a composed draw in the third. These are arguably the two best teams in the world right now, but mistakes were playing a part in a contest that lacked the high-grade quality of their earlier meeting.

A Mouat misjudgement allowed the Swiss to take another two in the fourth and open a 4-3 lead at the break, but the errors were coming from both sides. And in the sixth, we had one that changed the whole tenor of the contest. Switzerland had a shot at three with their final throw.

But the attempt glanced one of their own stones on the way through and skittered right through the house to give Britain a steal and fresh hope at 4-4. The Swiss nudged back ahead in the seventh, but only by one after a fabulous Mouat shot averted a curling catastrophe, and the GB skip then added two of his own to the board to give his rink the lead for the first time with two ends left.