Red-hot curlers make their mark with medals

GREAT BRITAIN'S curlers bagged women's gold and men's silver at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Poland last night.

The women came through a match against Denmark 7-6 to book their place in the final and then beat Switzerland 8-4 to take gold. The men edged past Norway 9-7 but then lost 6-5 on the last stone to Switzerland. Both teams had nonetheless combined to deliver Britain's best-ever result in the tournament.

Women's skip Anna Sloan said: "I am so pleased. We knew this was our only chance to get this medal here and now. We wouldn't have been happy with anything else apart from the gold so we went all out and played fantastically as a team."

Scots coach Debbie Knox, an Olympic gold medallist at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, added: "I am really proud of the girls.

I enjoyed this more than winning my own Olympic gold medal."