Great Britain will be guaranteed a second medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics after the women’s curling team beat Sweden 12-11 in the semi-final.

They secured a place in the gold medal match after a tense clash on Friday, which saw skip Eve Muirhead and her team go 4-0 down after the first end but managed to claw back and win a nerve-racking extra end, the 11th of the match.

Team GB held a 11-8 lead going into the 10th end before Anna Hasselbord levelled the scores and force the extra end.

Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds, and Hailey Duff were able to secure the win in Beijing and banish the memories of the Swedish team beating them in the semis in PyeongChang four years ago.

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Team GB will face Japan in Sunday’s gold medal match, the first time Great Britain’s women have a shot at winning a curling gold in 20 years.

On Saturday, Team GB’s men’s curling team will go for gold against Sweden, guaranteeing Britain’s first medal of the Games.

Third time lucky for Eve Muirhead

The victory was significant for Muirhead, who in the 2010 Games in Vancouver became the youngest skip ever to lead a team at the Winter Olympics at the age of 19.

She returned in 2014 but lost to Canada in the semi-finals, before falling at the same stage to Sweden in 2018.

After the semi-final victory, Muirhead said winning an Olympic gold has “always been a dream of mine”.

“Of course, there have been times when you doubt whether you’ll be back and get that chance to play for gold. Sometimes you get home and want to throw your shoes in the cupboard and carry on doing something else,” she said.

“But we learned a lot from that, we stood up tall and we fought for our spot here. We showed we’ve got so much talent as a team, we’ve got so much drive and fight. It’s an absolute dream come true and I’m pretty speechless, to be honest.”