Scottish sprinter Bruce Mouat reveals his secret fashion-fueled weapon at the Winter Olympics

Curler Bruce Mouat needed a trick from his magic hat to land an Olympic mixed doubles medal with Jennifer Dodds.

The world champions were beaten by round robin pacesetters Italy in a 7-5 loss that left them needing two wins from their last three matches to guarantee qualification.

With hosts China next, followed by Norwegian ‘curling pair’ Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien, Mouat did not shy away from the prospect of knockout curling.

“We are quite happy with what we did,” said the 27-year-old from Edinburgh.

“We are a little bit disappointed not to win that one, we will be in a very solid position. We’ve beaten a lot of tough teams out there who will be cheering us on.

“It almost had to win now. I’m excited to go in and see what we can do.

“It looks like a lot of teams are beating each other. The ideal scenario is to win three and then we are at seven, that would be nice. I think six is ​​the goal, so two of the next three will be great.”

After Canadian commentators took aim at his bad hair day, Mouat began wearing a hat on the Grand Slam circuit. Now he has a cult following and his own Twitter account.

He said: “I think there are more Twitter followers on that account than my own!

“I guess it’s a bit of a superstition almost now. I didn’t play very well in the first three games and I was quite disappointed with the way I played. It had superpowers, apparently!”

He was only half joking. In the first three games at the Olympics, Mouat did not wear a cap and his average shooting accuracy was 73% compared to 92% when he wore it for the next three games.

Powerplay, a unique feature of the evolving format appearing at Olympic level for the second time, proved decisive in Dodds and Mouat’s ongoing struggle.

In mixed doubles, teams place their first stone and using powerplay allows the team with the ‘hammer’ to move the stone wide from the middle, opening up attacking opportunities.

After letting the Australian minnows lay three in their powerplay and return to the game, finally squeaking through with an extra finish, England believe they have found the formula to seal it off in an 8-3 win over the Czech Republic.

But Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini turned things around and the penultimate final three, which was almost called a four, thwarted the hopes of Dodds and Mouat.

“I think I’d be a little worried if we started off great. I wasn’t worried at first, but I really liked the way it went.”

“We play curling because we like a little bit of pressure. We’re out to win every game, that’s our goal, so pressure doesn’t make a real difference.

“We’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing, tighten some things up and I think we’re going to be really solid.”

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