"Swings and roundabouts" for wheelchair curlers in Beijing

ParalympicsGB’s Wheelchair Curlers enjoyed a perfect start at the Ice Cube on Day 3 of competition at Beijing 2022 with a big victory over Switzerland followed by defeat to Slovakia in the evening session.

The results mean the British team have won two matches and lost two matches as they approach the halfway stage of the competition.

Gregor Ewan, who is competing at his third Paralympic Games, said: “I am quite happy with a 50 per cent win rate - we have just got to move forward and get more wins. We have got to stick together it’s team game - we all missed shots today.”

“I was happy this morning but this evening it slowly slipped away from us.

“This game is swings and roundabouts - I cannot take it away from Slovakia they played really well, we took them into a hitting game and we were mising too many ourselves.”

After an enforced day off there were no signs of any early morning cobwebs in the first session as the team of Hugh Nibloe, Gregor Ewan, Meggan Dawson-Farrell and David Melrose stormed to an emphatic 15-1 victory over Switzerland.

ParalympicsGB immediately siezed the initiative to build a 10-0 lead after just three ends and cruised to a comfortable win following a rest day yesterday during which many of the team went to watch the thrills and spills of Para Ice-Hockey.

Next up were Slovakia who proved far tougher opponents as ParalympicsGB failed to achieve the consistency of the morning. Slovakia built a healthy 5-1 lead by the conclusion of the fourth end and the British team never managed to close the deficit with Slovakia closing out the tie 7-3.

With matches coming thick and fast the competition is reaching a key stage in ParalympicsGB’s progress towards securing one of those precious top four places in the round-robin.

Skip Hugh Nibloe said: “We are probably not where we wanted to be but we know we are still in with a chance.

“Against Switzerland we made key shots and against Slovakia they made the key shots but that’s Curling sometimes.

“We still have levels we can move up to, Gregor is the cheerleader and I am more the tactical one trying to work out the best strategy. I am still confident we can still be there at the end of the week.”