Lockerbie curler Anna Sloan, in the headlines a fortnight ago for winning the Scottish Junior Championships, took a larger share of the limelight this weekend when she skipped Team GB to the gold medal at the 9th European Youth Olympic Winter Festival (EYOWF) in Poland.

Sloan’s rink, all Scots supported by the Scottish Area Institute of Sport network, beat Denmark 7-6 in the semi finals, avenging their only defeat of the tournament in the round robin stages.

In the final against Switzerland the game swung to the GB women, resulting in 3 on the 5th end. Playing the final end and leading 8-4, GB ran the Swiss team out of stones.

“It’s amazing to win and we wouldn’t have been happy with anything else but the gold medal,” said 18 year old Sloan, who is supported by the West of Scotland Institute of Sport, along with Lockerbie team mates, Hannah Fleming and Alice Spence.  The other team members were Balfron’s Lauren Gray (Central Scotland Institute of Sport) and North Berwick’s Rebecca Kesley (East of Scotland Institute of Sport).

“Through the first round robin games we felt we were the strongest team.  When we lost to Denmark we had a boost to make sure we played our best in the semis and the final. 

“In the semi finals we knew we had to play really well to beat Denmark and it was a very close game.  We were one down coming down the last and we had to take a two to win.  So it came down to my last stone and we did it.

“In the final we went out to play a simple game because we knew we were the stronger hitters and we would get the better of them eventually.” 

Following the girls, the British men (again all Scots) won the silver medal, elevating Team GB to its best ever place in the competition. 

Blair Fraser, from Inverness and supported by the West of Scotland Institute of Sport, was part of the team.

“It was a great experience but we expected higher, we played well but didn’t get the luck,” he said. “We probably lost the gold rather than won the silver but we’ll still take it.”

Missing gold by the closest of margins might be little consolation to the ambitious Scots but had it not been for a stroke of fortune the men’s team would not have been in the competition. They had been on the event’s reserve list and only moved up into the event in last autumn.

“We played well as a team and we made big improvements from the start to the end of the competition,” said Blair.  “The other games we played well and won the games comfortably.”

“The Olympics is a long term goal for me so this was a great experience and I’ve never been to anything like that before.

“The sort of people we were playing are the best in their countries so it gives us good hope for the future.”