GB men’s curlers’ semi-final hopes on line after shock defeat

Great Britain’s men’s curling Winter Olympics medal hopes have been cast into doubt after a shock 8-6 defeat by Norway left them scrambling to make the semi-finals in Cortina.

Bruce Mouat’s world champions had lost two of their opening six matches, but were expected to beat the Norwegians for their fifth victory of the competition.

Leading 4-2 after six ends, they appeared to be in good shape. But a few untimely errors, combined with a disciplined display by their unheralded opponents, left them 6-4 down with two ends left.

Mouat’s attempted triple takeout in the penultimate end was a fraction out, but still yielded two to level the scores going into the last.

However, Norway held their nerve with the hammer to close out an unexpected victory.

Given results elsewhere, five wins might still prove to be enough to reach Thursday’s semis. But the British rink will need to beat both Canada on Tuesday (18:05 GMT) and the United States the next day (13:05) to be sure of making the last four.

The women’s rink are in even more significant peril, after a win and a loss on Monday left them needing favours to reach the medal matches.

Denmark were seen off 7-2 in the morning, but world silver medallists Switzerland ultimately proved just too strong for the inexperienced British team, winning 10-6.

The Scottish quartet score their first double of the game to lead after six ends, but the Swiss responded immediately with three points of their own.

The inexperienced GB team pulled level with two ends to go but a magnificent final stone earned Switzerland four in the ninth end to immediately finish the contest.

Having now lost four of their opening six games, Rebecca Morrison’s rink need to beat the United States (08:05 GMT) and Japan (18:05) on Wednesday, then hosts Italy on Thursday (13:05), to have any chance of reaching the last four.

Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby concluded their Olympic debut with a season-best score in pairs figure skating.

Both Brits put their hands down to the ice in the axel sequence of their free skate – but they didn’t fall, thus avoiding a one-point deduction.

There was a slight mistime in the lasso lift too, but overall it was a graceful routine for the first British duo to compete in the pairs since 2014.

It had been a tricky build-up to the competition, with Digby suffering a wrist injury which hampered their training while Vaipan-Law fell during their routine in the team event.

It earned them an overall score of 179.06 and they finished in 15th place.

On their Olympic experience, Digby said: “It will never change us as people but it will give us memories for a lifetime. It has been our goal since we’ve been young kids – the journey has been tough with plenty of ups and downs.

“But to finally achieve our dream and we know that for the rest of our lives we can be really proud of what we did at this Olympics, and that is what means the world.”

Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won gold after a flawless free skate saw them charge up the leaderboard, having been fifth after the short program. They add the Olympic crown to their World Championship title.

Team GB’s Niall Treacy suffered his third crash in as many short track speed skating events as his Winter Olympics ended when he failed to progress from the 500m heats.

The only British representative in short track, Treacy surprisingly reached the 1500m final on Saturday but crashed out and then also fell in the 1,000m heats.

The 25-year-old says the shortest distance is his least favourite, declaring himself to be “not a natural sprinter”.

Treacy had a wobbly start as he was clipped on the opening corner by South Korea’s Rim Jong-un – an 18-year-old high school student who won bronze in the 1,000m – to require a restart.

But there was no reprieve for Treacy, as he skidded out midway through the full race under no pressure.

It ends British interest in short track, and the sport has struggled since losing £4.8m in UK Sport funding after failing to win a medal at PyeongChang 2018.

GB sent a team of five to short track events eight years ago – but that is down to one in Milan.

Dutchman Jens van’T Wout, who has already won both the 1,000m and 1500m, remains in the hunt for a golden treble after avoiding a mass pile-up to win his heat.

British two-man bobsleigh team Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence suffered a disappointing start to their Olympic campaign – now sitting eighth at the halfway point of the competition.

Their combined time of 1:51:54 after two heats leaves them 1.64 seconds off the pace of German team Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer in top spot with two more German teams occupying the other podium places before Tuesday’s medal-deciding runs.

Hall and Lawrence, who is a serving Royal Marine, were unable to improve on their run-one position after a heavy bump near the top of the track on their second heat led to more errors and a struggle to make up time.

“It was definitely a very difficult day. The track is extremely difficult to be consistent down, especially in a bobsleigh,” said Hall, who is GB’s most decorated bobsleigh World Cup pilot.

“We didn’t quite do well enough on our second run, we lost quite a bit of time to some and gained on others. We need to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do better tomorrow.”

Pilot Hall will also lead the charge for a medal in the four-man event later this week. While Germany’s Francesco Friedrich, who is currently third, is aiming to do the treble double – win two and four-man gold for the third Games in a row.

Meanwhile, Adele Nicoll said she was “speechless” after a disappointing final run meant she finished 18th in the women’s monobob.

The Welsh slider, who is also a three-time British shot put champion, produced three solid runs before clocking 1:01:03, which she described as “the worst run of my life”, in the fourth heat.

“I know everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong and it is just one of those nightmare performances that I’ll hopefully move on from. I need to pull it together for the two-woman,” she said.