Elgin’s Gregor Ewan helped Scotland to a podium finish at the World Wheelchair Curling Championships in Canada.
Scotland’s wheelchair curlers met Sweden in the bronze medal match after losing 5-2 against hosts Canada in the semis.
The Scottish team of Ewan, Hugh Nibloe, Gary Logan, Meggan Dawson Farrell and Butterfield recovered from a sluggish start to end the championships on a high with a 7-4 success against the Swedes to finish third.
🥉MEDALLISTS ✔️
Scotland return to podium @worldcurling Wheelchair Champs with beautiful bronze, beating Sweden 7-4 in the 3rd place play-off.
Great performance @shug9 @gregorcurling @Jo_shuni @SpiderMonkey165 Gary Logan & Charlotte McKenna
📸WCF/Chayenne Boone #WWhCC2023 pic.twitter.com/GP8YIY8uq3— British Curling (@BritishCurling) March 12, 2023
It was a performance that epitomised the way the quintet had held firm in adversity throughout the week, having reached the play-offs in spite of finishing the round-robin section of the competition with a record of five wins and six losses.
The result was particularly sweet for lead Butterfield, the Paralympic gold medallist who switched to curling from athletics only last year and has now won medals on the global stage in two different and very contrasting sports.,
She said: “It feels amazing and I am really proud of the five of us.
“We are very inexperienced as a quintet, as a new team, but we have shown some real determination and some real potential this week.
“Nobody expected us to do anything here but we believed in ourselves and we dug deep.
“We have had some big ups and downs in terms of our own performances, but ultimately we pulled together when we had to and we are coming home with that medal.
“Although it may not be the one we all wanted it is a great feeling and I for one will take it in my first season in competitive curling. I am delighted to be taking home a world medal.”
