After Olympic and world silver, Bruce Mouat’s Scotland rink is aiming to end the search for an elusive global curling gold as the World Championships begin on Saturday.
Two-time European champions Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan will take to the ice as one of the favourites for the title in a competitive field.
But one of the nations standing in their way is Niklas Edin’s Sweden, who beat them in last year’s Olympic final, and the 2021 world final.
“We set this goal at the start of the season,” Mouat told BBC Scotland of their ambition to claim gold.
“Obviously last year the Olympics was the big aim, but going into this season, it’s the world championship – to get to stand on top of the podium would be the best result for us.
“It’s a great comp for a lot of reasons, so many good teams. Testing ourselves against these teams is pretty special.
“The Euros was pretty tough for us, and we’ve got the added pressure of playing Canada, USA and all the Asian teams, so it’ll be really exciting to get there and hopefully we can do as well as we did at the Euros.”
Mouat’s rink did not compete in last year’s World Championships, because their participation in the Olympics in Beijing left them unable to take part in the Scottish Championships, which act as a selection event.
But they did claim a fourth Scottish title in February to allow them to compete again in Ottawa on the world stage.
Along with the Swedes, the reigning world and Olympic champions, hosts Canada, Italy and the United States will provide stern opposition for Scotland as they aim to emulate David Murdoch’s rink, which claimed gold on Canadian ice in 2009.
That was the last time a Scottish men’s quartet won the world title.
“Preparations been great, the boys have been training hard all season,” Mouat, who won the world mixed doubles title in 2021, added.
“We’re obviously really excited to get to another World Championship and hopefully get a few better than we have in the last few years.
“We’ve built a lot of momentum, it’s really tough to win the Scottish Championships – leading into the Worlds it’s been great.”
The 13 teams will all play each other in a round-robin format with the top two sides qualifying directly for the semi-finals.
The four rinks ranked from third to sixth will enter the play-offs for the chance to also reach the last four.
Scotland begin their campaign against Italy on Saturday (19:00 BST).