THE Olympic and Paralympic veterans have done what was required of them and it now falls to a couple of youngsters to ensure that Team GB has a full complement of curlers in Pyeonchang next year.

Not that 23-year-old Gina Aitken and 22-year-old Bruce Mouat lack experience of what confronts them in the Canadian town of Lethbridge this weekend because it is the fourth time in five years that the Edinburgh-based pair have represented Scotland at the World Mixed Doubles Championships which start today.

This time, though, with the teams skipped by Dave Murdoch, who won silver at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Eve Muirhead, who claimed bronze there and Aileen Neilson, who picked up another bronze at the ensuing Winter Paralympics, having already earned the points required to ensure British involvement in their disciplines, Aitken and Mouat have the added pressure of seeking to make sure their country is involved when mixed doubles makes its first appearance on the Olympic stage.

A fourth-placed finish 12 months ago earned valuable qualifying points, but with Korea guaranteed their place as hosts, only seven teams can qualify and, with a total of 39 countries vying for places over the next week, there is considerable work to be done.

“Being in fourth right now isn’t a guarantee so it’s not comfortable, but we know what we need to do and we’re confident we can do it,” said Mouat.

Few have proven themselves better at coping with such pressure in recent times, however, than the lad who has skipped teams to gold medals at last year’s World Junior Championships and this season’s World University Games, as well as out-performing established full-time curlers at the recent Scottish Championships where they met Murdoch’s rink in the final.

“There’s been a lot of really good moments,” Mouat acknowledged.

“Reflecting on what’s happened over the past year, starting with a new team after winning the World Juniors last year, going to the World University Games, winning a gold medal there was the reward for all the hard work we put into forming the relationship we wanted.”

That academic background has done Mouat since he and Aitken have been involved in a great deal of mental calculation as they take on a new challenge in the sport since mixed doubles is not only new to the Olympics, but to the sport as a whole, its world championships having been instituted little more than a decade ago.

A shorter, sharper version of curling it has the potential to be its equivalent of T20 cricket or seven-a-side rugby, making it more accessible to both players and spectators, but the tactics are still evolving.

“We’ve seen a huge change,” said Mouat. “Gina and I have known each other since we were eight and I think this is our sixth year playing together and we just started having a bit of fun playing a new format. We loved the sport so much we just thought it was something else to try.”