European Curling Championships: Scotland's women defeated in final

Scotland's women had to make do with a silver medal as they lost 6-4 to Russia in the final of the European Curling Championships.

Eve Muirhead's rink were always behind in the final against Anna Sidorova's side.

Sweden's men's team, meanwhile, skippered by Niklas Edin, successfully defended their title.

The world champions beat Peter de Cruz's Switzerland by 7-6 after an extra end in Esbjerg, Denmark.

Muirhead's Scots had staged an extraordinary comeback against Finland in the semi-final, overturning a 5-0 deficit to triumph 9-7.

The host nation were edged out at the same stage 6-5 by the eventual champions Russia, who led the way with eight wins from nine in the round-robin stage.

Scotland's men missed out on the semis after a play-off loss to Sweden.

The teams finished in a tie for fourth place after the round-robin and Kyle Smith's team, making their debut at this level, were beaten 8-7.

Muirhead, who collected bronze last year, takes home a sixth consecutive European medal, having won gold once before in 2011, but was disappointed with a near miss in the eighth end.

"I'm gutted," she said. "We played a really great game out there but it just wasn't good enough on the day. I was a centimetre away from making it in that eighth end and that was a big turning point.

"Silver is not what we wanted and I really felt we were good enough to get that gold medal but unfortunately Russia played great out there today.

"That (eighth end) will haunt me for a long time. It's going to be hard to forget but we've got a long season ahead of us and hopefully we can keep fighting hard."