Wheelchair curlers look to bottle that winning feeling

ParalympicsGB’s wheelchair curlers began their campaign at the Ice Cube with a closely contested 7-5 defeat to a strong Norway.

The team of Hugh Nibloe, Gregor Ewan, Meggan Dawson-Farrell and David Melrose clawed their way back from 4-1 down to tie the match before Norway took a decisive lead in the penultimate end.

Next they faced a USA team who had also lost their opening match and again it was a nail-biting contest. USA raced in to a 3-0 lead then the momentum swung back and forth before a brilliant take out by Gregor Ewan gave ParalmypicsGB the lead for the first time in the penultimate end and they closed out the match to win 10-6.

Gregor Ewan: ‘USA is always a very hard match for us they never get a big win against us and we never get a big win against them

‘We have found getting moving and getting our brains in to gear helps – we have some games we are playing in the changing room just to try and keep us switched on

‘The round robin stage is never easy we know we need five to six wins to be close to qualifying. Even though we have a day off tomorrow its about starting from scratch coming back and working hard.”

Skip Hugh Nibloe said: ‘United States and Norway are good teams so to come out today won one and lost one is probably fair and it was so important to get that first W.

“It was so important especially for Meggan and David being their first Paralympics to get that belief that we can win games and we know we are good enough. Now its just important we go out and back it and keep that winning feeling bottled.’