Eve Muirhead admits qualification for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games is priority number one as her rink gears up for the World Women’s Curling Championship in Beijing, which begins on Saturday.
Ten nations will be represented in women’s curling at Pyeongchang 2018 and after finishing fifth at last year’s World Championship, Muirhead and co look in good shape to secure Team GB a spot.
That means a solid performance in China from Team Muirhead – which consists of skip Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray, with Kelly Schafer as an alternate – will seal a place.
The entirety of the team, except Schafer, won bronze for Team GB at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Their World Championship campaign begins against USA on Saturday morning and Muirhead is focused.
“Qualifying Great Britain for the Olympic spot is one of our main goals,” said Muirhead. “The space is pretty open but we need to finish off well to secure the spot.”
“I'm very competitive and I'll never give up until I know I can't do well and can't win.
“I guess there are a few stones unturned and one of them being getting further up the podium at the Olympic Games.
“Having come away with the bronze medal, you always want to do slightly better and strive for more.
“I’ve got lots of goals and I know it's the same with the rest of the girls and that's what makes it a great team, knowing we're all striving for the same.”
Muirhead claimed World Championship gold in 2013 but Switzerland have won the competition in each of the three years since
After 17 sessions of round-robin action involving the 12 teams, the top four go into the play-off stage – with the gold and bronze finals taking place on Sunday March 26.
“We want to take each part of the championship at a time,” added Muirhead.
“First of all, we've got the round robin which we want to finish strong in and get a top-four spot.
“From then it's a different competition. Play-offs are always different - you've got to step up your game when it comes to them.
“Switzerland have dominated, Canada are always tough, the Russians are tough - every game's going to be tough. We've got to be on top form out there.
“We've got lots of targets when we go out there. And yes, we want to go in there and hit the podium - we know we've got the potential to do that.”
Sportsbeat 2017