Brits win gold!

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had decided medals presented to four British curlers at the first Games in 1924, when the sport was believed to have been only a demonstration, deserved official status.

A Glasgow newspaper persuaded the IOC to fix its oversight after it followed up evidence discovered in the Royal Caledonian Curling Club's records.

"We have always been aware that our sport had a great history and we knew there had been curling in 1924," World Curling Federation president Roy Sinclair said.

The posthumous win for Scottish curlers Willie and Laurence Jackson, Robin Welsh and Tom Murray gives Britain its second Olympic curling gold, to follow victory four years ago for a Scottish quintet in Salt Lake City.

Members of this year's British team, who are medal outsiders here, said the surprise 1924 upgrade had not given them a special boost.

"It's nice, but I don't see it as an omen," Euan Byers, lead on the third-ranking men's team said. "Success comes from ability and a bit of luck."

Scottish housewife Rhona Martin pulled off a dramatic victory four years ago with a last throw in the final game against Switzerland that gave Britain its first winter win since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's Bolero ice dance in 1984.

Curling was treated as a demonstration sport five times in a row before finally being granted medal status in 1998 at Nagano, Japan.