苏格兰国内赛：Bruce Mouat剑指世界冠军

2023 02 08 ———————————————————— 苏格兰冰壶锦标赛。穆特的目标是将冠军作为通往难以捉摸的世界金牌之路 布鲁斯-穆特热衷于将他的默里菲尔德冰壶队确立为国内冠军，尽管一年前他曾带领英国队在北京获得奥运银牌。 斯基普-穆特、格兰特-哈迪、博比-兰米和哈米-麦克米伦已经赢得了他们的前三场比赛，他们希望在邓弗里斯冰球馆夺回苏格兰冰壶锦标赛的冠军。 2021年的Covid-19锁定了他们在苏格兰的三个冠军头衔，与奥运会的日期冲突使他们在2022年被排除在外。 "对我们来说，这是一个良好的开端，"28岁的穆特说。 "再次参加苏格兰锦标赛意义重大。距离我们上次比赛已经过去三年了，所以能回来是非常令人兴奋的。" 你可以理解为这位奥运会银牌得主和三届欧洲冠军会对他的主场比赛相当放松。 但事实并非如此，因为第四个冠军不仅将追平男子记录，而且还将入选世锦赛--穆特着眼于全球金牌，而这一点他至今都没有想到。 去年，穆特和他的队友们在冬奥会上与瑞典选手尼克拉斯-埃丁（Niklas Edin）的金牌擦肩而过，没有及时从中国回来参加全国锦标赛，因此没有被选中代表苏格兰参加世界锦标赛。 由此引发的争议导致了对重大赛事资格审查程序的审查。为了避免这次出现任何此类问题，世界排名第三的穆特和他的团队需要确保他们本周在邓弗里斯的八支队伍中脱颖而出，成为冠军。 "我们认为，无论谁在本周获胜，都可能成为被选中的球队，"穆特告诉BBC苏格兰频道。"但你永远不知道这些选拔小组的情况，所以我们会看到。 "如果我们能参加世锦赛，我们肯定会去争取金牌，以补充我们已经得到的银牌和铜牌。 "这将证实我们有一个多么伟大的奥运会。我们是如此接近于赢得那枚金牌。到目前为止，世界冠军一直与我们无缘，所以在赛季结束时称自己为世界冠军将是一个了不起的成就。" 虽然穆特的冰球队是排名第一的球队，但他很快就承认了其他争夺苏格兰冠军的球队所带来的挑战。 他说："这个领域充满了伟大的团队，"跳板说。"我们有罗斯-怀特，他也是英国冰壶协会资助的队伍，然后是詹姆斯-克雷克，他刚刚在世界大学生运动会上获得了一块金牌。 "我们还有卡梅隆-布莱斯，他打得非常好，排名也在不断攀升。我们有四支队伍进入世界前20名，这对苏格兰和英国冰壶运动来说真的很好。然后我们还有凯尔-瓦德尔，以前的冠军。 "这里的比赛将是一个很难赢得的比赛，但它真的会让我们处于一个好的位置，希望能进入世界锦标赛。" ———————————————————— Scottish Curling Championships: Mouat targets title as route to elusive World gold Bruce Mouat is keen to establish his Murrayfield rink as domestic champions, despite having guided Team GB to Olympic silver in Beijing a year ago. Skip Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan have won their first three matches as they bid to reclaim the Scottish Curling Championship at the Dumfries Ice Bowl. The Covid-19 lockdown in 2021 halted their run of three Scottish titles and a clash of dates with the Olympics ruled them out in 2022. "It's been a good start to the competition for us," said Mouat, 28. "It means a lot to be playing the Scottish Championships again. It's been three years since we played our last one so it's very exciting to be back." You could be forgiven for thinking the Olympic silver medallist and three-time European champion would be fairly relaxed about his home event. Not so, since not only would a fourth title equal the men's record, but selection for the World Championships is up for grabs - and Mouat has eyes on the global gold that has so far eluded him. Last year, after narrowly missing out on the gold medal at the Winter Olympics to Sweden's Niklas Edin, Mouat and his team-mates were not back in time from China to compete in the national championships and therefore were not picked to represent Scotland at the World Championships. The resultant controversy led to a review of qualification procedures for major events. To avoid any such issues this time around, Mouat and his team, ranked third in the world, need to make sure they emerge as the winners from the eight teams this week in Dumfries. "We think whoever wins this week is probably going to be the team that's selected," Mouat told BBC Scotland. "But you never really know with these selection panels, so we'll see. "If we get to the World Championships, we'll definitely be going for the gold medal to add to the silver and bronze we've already got. "It would solidify what a great Olympics we had. We were so close to winning that gold medal. The world title has eluded us so far, so it would be an amazing achievement to call ourselves world champions at the end of the season." While Mouat's rink are the top-ranked team, he is quick to acknowledge the challenge posed by others vying for the Scottish title. "The field is stacked full of great teams," said the skip. "We've got Ross Whyte, who's also a British Curling funded team, and then James Craik, who's just come off a gold medal at the World University Games. "We've also got Cameron Bryce, who is playing very well and climbing the rankings. We have four teams in the world top 20 and that's really good for Scottish and British curling. And then we've got Kyle Waddell, the previous winner. "This competition here is going to be a tough one to win, but it would really put us in a good spot, going into a World Championship, hopefully."