Britain fall just short in gold-medal bid as Sweden win after extra end

• Team GB win first medal of the Games as they claim silver against great Swedish quartet
• Chance of first men's curling gold since 1924 ends in extra end defeat 
• Women's curling team go for gold on Sunday

Great Britain’s 20-year wait for an Olympic curling gold goes on - for a day at least - after Bruce Mouat’s men’s rink fell to a 5-4 extra-end defeat to Sweden. 

Pitting the world No 1 ranked rink, in the form of Mouat’s team, against the reigning world champions, the gold-medal match fully lived up to its billing. 

Niklas Edin beat Mouat’s rink last year to win his fifth world title although the last three meetings had gone the way of the Scottish curlers - twice on the way to European gold and then the round robin stage in Beijing. 

The Olympic final was a tight, tactical and tense affair with Sweden going into the 10th leading by a point at 4-3, albeit Britain held the hammer - or last stone advantage - after intentionally blanking the ninth. But when they were only able to take a single, therefore handing the hammer back to their opponents for the extra end, Sweden were able to seal the win when Mouat's last stone came up short. 

For Edin, a former tank group commander in the army, it was a first Olympic title of his career, while silver for Mouat and team-mates Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr confirmed a first medal for Team GB at these Games. 

There is still the chance of a British Olympic curling gold in Beijing - and first since Rhona Martin’s Stone of Destiny at Salt Lake City 2002 - when Eve Muirhead and her rink take on Japan in tomorrow’s women’s final (01.05am).