Aussie curlers make mark on Olympic ice

SYDNEY, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Olympic mixed doubles curlers Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt ended their Beijing campaign with a triumphant flourish.

After being dogged by COVID-related hurdles during the early stages of the contest, the pair, as the country's first curling Olympians, won their final bouts against two of the world's leading competitors Switzerland and Canada.

"We put our hearts and souls into that game, to be able to come back with the win was really awesome," Gill said of their first taste of Olympic victory.

Both Hewitt and Gill are destined to end up in curling, introduced to the sport at a young age by their parents.

Hewitt's father, Steve, is a four-time Pacific-Asia champion who represented Australia at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, where curling was a demonstration event, while his mother, Lynn, has loved the sport since her childhood in Canada.

Little wonder that by the age of five, the young Hewitt had already taken to the ice rink to learn the delicate art of gently sliding a heavy polished stone towards its target.

Innate talent, steady nerves and deft touch helped him and his mum earn berths on the Australian squad at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in 2017 and 2018.

Gill's upbringing has also been steeped in the sport, first putting on her rubber-soled curling shoes when she was 11.

"I could hardly move the 20kg rock, to begin with, but you have to start somewhere," she recounted.

Her contagious enthusiasm caught on with her mother, Lynette, and sisters Kirby and Jayna who subsequently followed her icy footsteps. The Gills have since chalked up successes on the elite level, the family team winning the Australian Women's Championship in 2018 and representing their country at the Pacific-Asia Championship that same year.

With such backgrounds, it is not surprising that the Hewitt and Gill combination quickly made a name for themselves in the international arena finishing fourth among 48 nations at the World Curling Championships in 2019.

Their solid form continued in 2019 with silver medals at the New Zealand Winter Games and the Sutherland mixed doubles curling classic in Saskatoon, Canada.

The pandemic interrupted their schedule in 2020, but they returned for the world titles last May where they staged an upset win over Canada.

It was a case of deja vu when they again took on the Canadians this week in their final round of their round-robin contest in Beijing.

It was a thrilling duel that saw the Canadians fight back from 7-0 down to level the game at 8-8 before the Aussies held firm to win 10-8.

Following the adrenaline-charged conclusion to the Games, Gill said they were leaving Beijing feeling "so proud".

"If anything, this whole experience has just made me and Dean so much more motivated," she said.

"We're just going to knuckle down as soon as we get home and we're not going to stop until we're here again in the next four years."