Athletics: British curlers come up short; WINTER OLYMPICS.

Byline: BY MARK STANIFORTH

DAVID MURDOCH conceded fighting spirit alone was not enough to earn Great Britain an Olympic curling medal after an 8-6 bronze play-off defeat to the United States at Pinerolo.

Murdoch was adamant his team had not been haunted by the memory of Wednesday's agonising last stone semi-final defeat to Finland but they seldom looked likely to snare the consolation prize.

A fine double takeout by skip Pete Fen-son gave the Americans three for a 4-1 advantage after the third end and it was a lead the Britons were never able to claw back. Murdoch said: "We wanted to win bronze as much as that semi-final and we did everything possible to win.

"We had a sleepless night on Wednesday night but we regrouped and showed a lot of character to come out fighting. We proved there is a lot of fight on this team.

"It's a fantastic team and we did everything we could and it's a bit of a hard luck story -we just didn't get the breaks in the last couple of games and got caught out."

Murdoch's failure to read the unpredictable ice contributed to setting up Fenson's triple chance.

The Britons frequently admitted throughout their Olympic programme that the ice was not to their liking and often worked more in favour of their opponents.

Vice-captain Ewan MacDonald said: "Both David's last shots didn't curl as much as we thought and it left them a great chance to get a three.

"If that stone had swung another inch then maybe they didn't really have that shot and that was a big turning point for the m atch."

CAPTION(S):

David Murdoch