Winter Olympic curler Grant Hardie returns to Kirkgunzeon Primary

Winter Olympian Grant Hardie has paid a visit to his old school.

Grant, who was part of the men’s curling team in Beijing, returned to Kirkgunzeon Primary to show off the silver medal he won with team-mates Bruce Mouat, Hammy McMillan Jnr, Bobby Lammie and Ross Whyte.

Staff and pupils had followed the team’s journey to the final and were delighted when Grant dropped in to let his fans see the medal close up.

He answered a torrent of questions about his time at Kirkgunzeon Primary as well as his curling achievements.

He told the youngsters he was proud with his silver medal but a “little bit disappointed” that the team didn’t win gold with the worst thing about the Olympics being that his friends and family couldn’t be there.

He had started curling at about six or seven-years-old with his most embarrassing moment being falling on the ice.

And his favourite memories of being at Kirkgunzeon included playing against other schools. Because the Kirkgunzeon pupils knew a tree was in the middle of the pitch they could avoid it but children from other schools would often run into it!

To end his visit, Grant challenged pupils to an indoor bonspiel using their indoor curling set, gifted to the school by Active Schools. It proved to be harder than curling on ice.

Staff and pupils were also delighted to meet the Olympic curlers during the recent Scottish Curling Championships at the Ice Bowl in Dumfries.