Ukraine won gold in Scotland despite a disjointed training schedule ©British Curling

Ukraine has won the men's gold medal in the European Curling Championships C-Division following a tumultuous journey to the competition due to the war with Russia.

The country triumphed at the event held in the Dumfries Ice Bowl in Scotland.

Coached by Erkki Lill and led by skip Eduard Nikolov, the Ukrainian side was also made up of Yaroslav Shchur, Artem Suhak, Vladyslav Koval, and Artem Hasynets.

They beat Liechtenstein 10-2 in the final to secure their spot in next season's B-Division and improve on last year's second-placed finish.

The squad trained at Stirling's National Curling Academy (NCA) just before the contest which marked another stop as they struggle to find a permanent base due to the destruction of facilities during the war.

"We have been preparing for the European C Championships in a number of different countries leading up to this point," said Lill.

"We were in Tallinn for four months, Finland for five weeks and also in the United States in Salt Lake City for four months, before training in Scotland ahead of our Championships, which has given us a good opportunity to prepare for these Championships."

Ukraine's men beat Liechtenstein 10-2 in the final to win gold in Dumfries ©British Curling
Ukraine's men beat Liechtenstein 10-2 in the final to win gold in Dumfries ©British Curling

Poland won bronze following an 8-4 victory over Slovenia while the country's women's side clinched gold and narrowly beating Slovakia 8-7. 

Ireland beat Portugal 9-6 for the bronze.

Ukraine's women also made an improvement on the previous season where they came seventh.

Amassing five wins from nine matches saw them place fifth, narrowly missing out on the knockout rounds.

"We are very privileged to operate within facilities that are the envy of the world, so as soon as we were made aware that we could help the Ukrainian players get ready for their championships we considered it a privilege to do so," said British Curling's executive performance director Nigel Holl.

"If the use of the NCA contributed in any way to the performance of their teams in Dumfries then it is all the more pleasing, but the most important thing has been that Ukrainian curling knows that so many around the world want to do what we can to offer our support."