History repeated itself in brutal fashion for mixed doubles curlers Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds, who lost the bronze medal match for a second Olympics in succession.
The pair swept through the round-robin stage, winning eight of their nine matches, and were the top seeds heading into the all-important knockouts.
But that excellent form deserted the 2021 world champions at the worst possible time. First came a 9-3 hammering at the hands of Sweden’s Rasmus and Isabella Wranaa, who they had beaten 7-4 in the round robin, in Monday’s semi-final.
That catastrophic defeat brought back ugly memories of the same stage in Beijing, when they lost to Norway – having let a lead slip – to put them in a tense battle for bronze, only to see that dream vanish too against an inspired Swedish team.
And there was an element of those demons coming back on Tuesday in Cortina, as Italy’s reigning world and Olympic champions Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner avenged their round-robin defeat to win a tight encounter 5-3.
Mouat and Dodds, who are childhood friends, lacked the same confidence they had shown in the group stage, while Constantini was near-immaculate, sealing the match with a perfect final stone right in the centre of the house.
Dodds said: “It is a case of so close yet so far. It hurts the same as four years ago really. I don’t want to ugly cry so I’m just going to stop there.
“There’s been a few fourth places for Team GB over the last couple of days, and that shows how close we are in so many events.”
Mouat said: “It is rough. We played so much better than we did four years ago, but to leave with the same result is going to hurt for a bit, but both of us are pretty resilient people.
“We fought for everything this week and I’m extremely proud of us. We spoke last night about how lucky we are to be playing at the Olympics as best mates. We are two people that grew up together and never really knew where we could go with curling.”
Team GB were behind from the first end as Italy took an early 1-0 lead, although the Italians – going first in the second end – failed to capitalise on their opportunity as Britain levelled.
Italy made mistakes in the third end and some aggressive play from Mouat saw GB regain control of the centre, but Constantini dragged Italy back into it, knocking a red stone off-centre to steal another point.
The reigning champions went 3-1 up by the half-way stage, and although GB kept themselves in contention with another point in the fifth end, the Italians stayed one step ahead.
Constantini again threw an excellent stone as the last shot of the fifth end to keep their two-point cushion, and Britain responded by calling the power play in the seventh. One point in that end kept them within touching distance but crucially meant they conceded the hammer for the final end, and with Italy calling the power play, it proved a step too far for the British pair.
Mouat and Dodds cut tearful figures afterwards, while there was jubilation for Constantini and Mosaner, and the heavily partisan Cortina crowd.
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