Bruce Mouat has experienced most things throughout the course of his curling career, which has seen him win world and European titles, as well as Olympic silverware.
There is, nothing, however, quite like winning a major championship on home ice.
It’s something Mouat has experienced once before in his career when, alongside Jen Dodds, he won the World Mixed Doubles title in Aberdeen.
He’s back in the Granite City this week and has every intention of repeating the feat, only this time with his men’s squad.
Today, the European Men’s Curling Championships kick-off and it’s an event in which Mouat is no stranger to success.
Having become European champion in 2018, 2021 and 2022, the 29-year-old, who is also reigning world champion, is approaching this week, which will see him go for his third consecutive European title, with one goal, and one goal only.
“I think it’d be silly to say we’re in Aberdeen for anything other than one thing – which is gold,” the Edinburgh man reveals.
“Anything other than a win would be disappointing for us, especially because of our track record.
“We know what we want to do this week and we’re going there to try and achieve it.”
Mouat and his rink of Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan and alternate Kyle Waddell have endured something of a mixed season to date.
Having won their opening two events of the season, the Scots have since failed to quite hit the heights that’s seen them consistently become major championships medallists.
Their most recent result was a quarter-final defeat to their old rivals, Team Edin from Sweden at the Nova Scotia Grand Slam of Curling but Mouat is optimistic that he and his compatriots will be able to find their very best form just when they need to, with their European Championship campaign beginning this afternoon against Norway.
“We had a strong start to our season but since then, we’ve not been performing quite as well,” he says.
“In the last couple of events, though, we’ve been getting very close to our best, which is encouraging.
“In a perfect world, we’d make every shot and we’d win everything but we’re athletes and we know that’s not possible. So we’re hopefully going to peak at the right time.
“We’re pretty experienced now and we’ve had a lot of good results in championships. We know what we need to do at these big events to play well so we need to make sure we put that into practice again.”
As world number ones, the Italians go into these European Championships as favourites but Mouat is hopeful that with the home crowd behind him and his rink, they’ll be able to upset the form book and win what would be their fourth European title.
“Going in with so much experience and knowing exactly what it feels like to play in the European final is helpful but I also believe that every competition is its own individual thing and very separate from anything that’s gone before. So while our experience will help us, in reality all that matters is how we perform over the next week.
“As a men’s team, this is our first championship in Scotland so we’re very excited to finally have the chance to play in front of our family and friends at home in a major event like this.
“I’m going to embrace this opportunity as much as possible.
“It’d mean a lot personally to win at home but it’s also a very big thing for the sport and it’s really nice to have the chance to get the spotlight on curling.”
Also in action in Aberdeen alongside Mouat and his rink are his compatriots in the Women’s European Curling Championships, which runs alongside the men’s event.
Team Morrison is led by skip, Hannah Morrison and she will be joined by Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair, Sophie Jackson and Jen Dodds.
Team Morrison is currently ranked thirteenth in the world but having won bronze at this event a year ago, they will have every intention of using their home advantage to improve on that result over the coming week.
Team Morrison opens its campaign this morning against Turkey, with their toughest competition over the week likely to come from the world number one rink, Switzerland.
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