A University of Strathclyde student has won gold with his curling team at the World University Winter Games.
Blair Haswell was a member of the five-man GB team which emerged victorious at the Games in Lake Placid, New York. They won all but one of their 12 games to finish top in the tournament.
Blair, a second-year Law student at Strathclyde, was the team’s lead, a role in which he delivered the first two stones of each end and swept the ice for the remaining six.
Strathclyde was also represented in the women’s curling team at the games, with Humanities & Social Sciences student Robyn Munro among the squad who finished fourth after winning seven games out of 11.
Neil Brown, Strathclyde’s Director of Sport and Active Health, said: “Huge congratulations to Blair and Robyn for their performances at the Winter World University Games.
“It’s fantastic to see students supported by the Performance Sport Scholarship Programme representing the University at such a high level and for Blair to come home with a gold medal was especially pleasing.”
Blair and his men’s colleagues – Mark Watt, Angus Bryce, Jack Carrick and skip James Craik – won their first five round-robin matches against Republic of (South) Korea, Brazil, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Norway. Their only defeat, against Japan, followed, but they recovered with victories over Sweden, USA and Canada to finish top of the first stage.
Canada were also Scotland’s opponents in the semi-final and Scotland followed their 6-4 win with a 5-1 victory over host nation USA in the final.
Robyn and her team-mates – Holly Wilkie-Milne, Laure Watt, Lisa Davie and skip Fay Henderson – also began with five consecutive wins, over Switzerland, Australia, Spain, South Korea and Japan. They then lost to China and USA but recorded further wins against Canada and Sweden; in the subsequent play-off, which they lost to Korea. However, they still secured a place in the contest for the bronze medal, in which they lost 7-3 to USA.
Blair was previously a member of the Scotland team which took bronze at the 2020 World Junior Curling Championships in Lausanne. He is also a member of GB Curling and Vice-Chair of the Scottish Student Sport Curling Development committee.
Blair and his colleagues have been congratulated on their success in a Scottish Parliamentary motion by MSP Finlay Carson, which has so far gained 25 signatures.
Robyn was a member of the youngest team in the women’s Curling event and their performance in a strong and experienced field give them momentum before the World Junior Championships in Füssen, Germany, from 25 February – 4 March.