Winter Olympics 2022 - Great Britain's curling medal hopes hang in balance after 'crushing' defeat to China

BySam Webb

Updated 16/02/2022 at 13:05 GMT

Great Britain’s medal hopes have taken a hit in the women’s curling following their 8-4 round robin loss to an impressive China team. Eve Muirhead’s quartet now go to four wins and four losses. The men are through to the knockouts after beating Sweden, can the women follow suit? They have one final fixture to go against the Russian Olympic Committee.

Great Britain’s medal hopes hang in the balance after losing 8-4 to a superb China team in the women’s curling.

The game slipped away from GB after a close-fought opening period but skip Eve Muirhead had the chance to force an extra end with her final throw if she could nail an incredibly difficult shot for three.

"By the slimmest of margins, the shot misses," was the commentary line on discovery+ as China ultimately stole the point and won the game 8-4, "a crushing disappointment for GB".

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The Brits will look to win their final round robin fixture against the Russian Olympic Committee and hope other teams around them lose to be in with a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.

Following the men’s impressive 7-6 win over front-runners Sweden on Tuesday, putting them through to the last four, Muirhead’s quartet knew they needed a win over China to remain firmly in the women’s medal hunt.

The Brits started strongly but were restricted to a single point in the first end after a beautifully executed double-takeout from China skip Wang Rui, who then chose to blank the second.

The game was cagey as it progressed, China perhaps playing without any nerves as their qualification chances were already gone whereas GB’s hung in the balance.

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Muirhead’s booming commands down the ice sounded louder than ever as the Chinese were able to level in the third before GB made it 2-1 in the fourth: “Go on Jen, go go go! Great sweeping,” was the call as Jennifer Dodds guided a yellow stone into the house.

The contest continued in back-and-forth fashion as China levelled, then GB went 3-2 up, China taking the hammer into the seventh.

The game then started rapidly slipping away from GB as China found their groove.

By the time Wang Rui had delivered a fantastic chip out in the penultimate end to earn her team three, the Brits trailed 7-4.

GB would need a miracle to force the game to an extra end and they so nearly found one through their miracle-worker skip in the tenth, but Muirhead’s attempt to leave her team lying three just missed.

Britain now have four wins and four losses going into their final round robin match and they may need some help from the teams around them if they are to progress.

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Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+.

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