Great Britain men's curling skip David Murdoch looked at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic silver medal hanging round his neck and admitted a "burning desire" to keep going for gold.

Just before Eve Muirhead's GB women's team collected their bronze medal at the award ceremony in the Olympic Park, the 35-year-old from Stirling beamed with delight as he bounded on to the stage to pick up the coveted medal which had evaded him at Turin in 2006 and Vancouver in 2010.

It was in sharp contrast to more indecisive comments about his future in the Ice Cube Curling Centre on Friday night following GB's chastening 9-3 final defeat to Canada which ended with Murdoch and team-mates Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow offering handshakes to the victors with two ends remaining.

"You go through a lot of emotions," said Murdoch. "I need to speak to a lot of people. I need to speak to Sport Scotland, UK Sport, my wife and the team, but certainly there is still an appetite to go on.

"I have a burning desire to play this game, I absolutely love it and it would probably be tougher to give it up than continue so continuing might be a better option."

Murdoch's excitement was almost boy-ish as he spoke about his podium experience. "My heart was racing," he said. "I was more nervous coming out there than I have ever been in my life. I can't believe I actually have the medal. I can't stop looking at it. It's incredible - and it's heavy.

"It was pretty tough times after the game, it was an opportunity gone, but we can't look back on that. We're so proud and it's the best feeling ever to have that medal. I'm keeping it on me as long as I can."

Muirhead admitted she had "butterflies in my stomach" as she walked on stage but they were soon chased away by the determination to go for gold in 2018. "It was unbelievable," she said. "It is every athlete's dream to get an Olympic medal. It's so heavy it almost breaks your neck, but it feels fantastic.

"This is what we have put in a lot of work for and to come away from the Olympics on a high feels just great. To be receive the medal on a Saturday night is unbelievable and to know it's being shown on TV at home makes it extra special.

"But this team isn't finished yet. We have a fantastic future ahead of us. So far we have had a very successful career, winning several major championships. The one medal I was missing was the Olympic medal and now I've got that. We're going to keep training hard, push for Korea and push further up the podium."