Eve Muirhead pulls trigger on 'pistol shot' to eliminate curling favourites Canada and secure GB place in semis

To label it the shot of the Olympics might be a step too far, but anything that has the usually emotionless Eve Muirhead literally jumping for joy has to be fairly spectacular.

Britain’s final round robin curling match against reigning champions Canada could not have been more finely poised when the moment of magic arrived.

Level at 4-4 in the penultimate end, Britain appeared to be staring down the barrel of defeat with two Canadian stones safely embedded in the house, two guards protecting them and just one stone remaining.

Step forwards ice-cool Muirhead. Pulling the trigger on a high-risk ‘pistol shot’, the British skip completed an unlikely four-stone cannon – effectively a long-range plant – which took out both of her opponents’ stones. In the space of one shot, the tide had turned.

With Canada making do with just one point, Britain then produced a flawless final end to secure a 6-5 victory that puts them on the brink of matching their bronze medal-winning exploits from four years ago.

A semi-final on Friday awaits, while their defeated rivals must return home with the humiliation of becoming the first Canadian curling team in history not to win an Olympic medal.

“It came at a pretty clinical time,” said Muirhead of her crucial shot. “Apparently I jumped up there.

“I’m just glad I landed with both feet firmly on the ice and not flat on my face.

“What a great team performance out there – it showed we do have a lot of determination and patience and I’m really delighted to get that semi-final spot.”

It did not always look likely. A simple error in the third end allowed Canada to steal a point against the hammer and, with vice-skip Anna Sloan in particular struggling, Britain went into the mid-match break 3-2 down.

As things started to improve, the tension increased with the Canadians knowing they faced the ignominy of losing their country’s perfect Olympic record if they were defeated.

Muirhead’s stunning shot in the ninth end flipped momentum and, with Canada’s Emma Miskew living up to her name with two errors in the final end, Britain seized on the opening to secure a third successive victory.

“The last few performances we’ve got better and better,” said Muirhead. “I think it’s important that you do that – building towards the play-offs.

“Every competition we tend to start slower and build momentum and I always hope we don’t leave it too late.

“This competition we haven’t, we’ve done it at the right time. As a team we love playing under pressure, we kind of thrive under that.”

To heap further misery on the despondent Canadian contingent, whose chants resounded around the Gangneung Curling Centre, the defeat was masterminded by one of their own.

Glenn Howard won four World Championships with Canada, but was branded a traitor by some for taking the job as coach of the British women’s team.

“I’m not naive to think that it was all roses,” said Howard, who admitted Britain would likely have lost without Muirhead’s magic shot.

“It’s tough, it’s too bad it came down to us knocking out Canada.

“I’ve had the Maple Leaf on my back and I’m proud to wear that, but I was hired two years ago and proud to put GB on my back and I was here 110 per cent for Great Britain. I wasn’t here for Canada.

“I root for every other Canadian athlete out there but I couldn’t root for Team Canada against my girls.”

While Muirhead’s team will have a day off on Thursday, Britain’s men face a tricky task to join them in the semi-finals with a play-off against Switzerland in the morning.

Should they win that match, they will take on table-topping Sweden later in the day.

Kyle Smith’s men knew a win in their final round robin match against United States would have been enough to send them straight through to the last four, but a poor display saw them thrashed 10-4 after just eight ends.

“We didn’t create enough chances and they were sharper than us,” said Smith.

“The ice was running a bit quicker today than it has in the last couple of games and I certainly wasn’t sharp enough on that and missed a few slack ones.

“We’ve still got a chance of making the semis so it’s kind of the same situation we were in today – win and we’re in – so we’ll be back and we’ll be playing better.”