Sweden won 9-3 in Tuesday afternoon’s bronze medal match against Great Britain, a victory created by a devastating middle of the match with points that made them take points from four consecutive finishes.

After finishing third – and over Sweden – in the round-robin ranking, Great Britain started with the last stone advantage.

In the first end, their female player, Jennifer Dodds, had to settle for just one point from a stone that was already in the house when she got the angles wrong on her attempt to shoot for two.

In the second end, Sweden’s male player Oskar Eriksson managed to open up a dense cluster with his last stone. Dodds then cleared away most but left Sweden still lying when Almida de Val came to play the last stone of the end.

She completed a double withdrawal, removed the second British stone from the wing, to score four points and take an early lead – at 4-1 – which Sweden would never lose.

In the third end, Dodds faced two Swedish opponents when she came to play her last, but again her angles were wrong, and Great Britain gave up a steal of three.

At this point, Sweden led 7-1.

The problems grew for Great Britain in the fourth end when Dodd’s last stone at the end caught a front guard to give Sweden another steal, for one point this time.

The team went to the break with 8-1 in Sweden’s favor.

In the fifth end, Great Britain looked good to score when Dodds played double withdrawals on Swedish stones. But her second goal stuck on the way out, which gave another single point theft for Sweden, which took a 9-1 lead.

Great Britain finally came back on the scoreboard in the sixth end when Dodds pulled their stone in position to score two points and reduce Sweden’s lead to 9-3.

But this was too little too late, and the British duo then admitted defeat, and Sweden took the bronze medals.

The official statistics judged Almida de Val’s performance to be 100% flawless – which made the bronze medal a really well-deserved prize.

After the match, an elated Swedish duo spoke, where Eriksson praised his partner’s 100% performance and said “It was fantastic! Our goal to get here to the Olympics was to win a medal. Yes, it was an incredible match of us today and Almida shot to 100%. So I’m really proud of her and our game today. “

De Val further explained: “This was our last chance, our last match, so we had nothing more to lose – just go out and play as best we can. We both know it’s a lot more fun to go home with a medal than without, so it really motivated us to really fight for this match. “

Meanwhile, Britain’s duo were generous with their opponents. Bruce Mouat said: “The big difference was that some of the shots the Swedes played were incredible, really well done today.” He added, “We are obviously quite disappointed. We just have to try to get over it as quickly as possible, but it may take us a few days.”

More generally, Jennifer Dodds reflected, “Just being at our first Olympics, it’s something I will always appreciate, the feeling of stepping on the ice for the first time, in our first match, is a moment I will never forget.”

The Swedish bronze medalists are: Almida de Val, female player; Oskar Eriksson, male player; Sebastian Kraupp, coach.

The fourth team in the UK is: Jennifer Dodds, female player; Bruce Mouat, male player; Ross Drummond, coach.

The Mixed Doubles competition now ends with the gold medal final between hitherto undefeated Italy and the 2018 Olympic bronze medalists Norway on Tuesday night at 20.05.

Results from mixed double bronze medal: Sweden 9-3 Great Britain

All times are China Standard Time (CST) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +8 hours

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