Winter Olympics 2022 - Great Britain to face USA in men's curling semi-final after dominant 5-2 win over Canada
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BySam Webb
Published 17/02/2022 at 04:10 GMT
Great Britain are just one game away from a guaranteed medal – Team GB’s first medal of the Beijing 2022 Games. Bruce Mouat’s rink were exceptional as they saw off Canada in their final men’s curling round robin fixture, topping the standings and setting up a semi-final clash against reigning champions USA. They have now won seven matches in a row. Can they make it eight?
Bruce Mouat led his rink to a seventh consecutive win in Beijing with a 5-2 victory against Canada
Image credit: Getty Images
Great Britain finished top of the men’s curling round robin standings with a seventh consecutive win in Beijing as they beat Canada 5-2.
Bruce Mouat’s rink will play reigning Olympic champions USA at 12:05 GMT today, starting with the hammer, for a spot in the final and a guaranteed medal.
A win against the Americans would deliver Team GB’s first medal of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
GB had already qualified for the last four before their win over Canada thanks to an 8-6 win over the Russian Olympic Committee.
But their top-spot finish now gives them the supposed advantage of playing the fourth-placed USA rather than third, which incidentally would have been Canada again.
Despite both teams having already qualified, it was a tense start to the round robin clash between Mouat's world silver medallists and the Canadians, led by skip Brad Gushue.
The Britons had the hammer going into the first end and took advantage by storming straight into a 2-0 lead, but Gushue capitalised on a Mouat mistake to draw level in the second.
GB grabbed the only other point before the game’s halfway mark and the score line read 3-2 going into the sixth.
Mouat’s quartet came out fighting again after the break, stealing one, before Canada’s 2006 gold medallist Gushue avoided a GB guard stone in the seventh to knock out a yellow and blank the end.
GB then ran away with the game and there did not give the Canadians another sniff.
They found their rhythm, as they so often do when they are ahead, forcing Gushue to attempt a difficult draw for one which he could not manage.
The score was 5-2 with two ends remaining as the USA led Denmark 7-3 and the semi-final fixture list was all but written by that point.
Canada called it quits after the eighth and GB progressed to the last four top of the table, brimming with confidence.
World number one-ranked GB are set to face reigning Olympic champions USA in a heavyweight semi-final clash from 12:05 GMT.
The Americans had the better of GB in their round robin match, which was the only fixture the Britons lost.
Elsewhere, Switzerland beat round robin runners-up Sweden 10-8, Norway beat Italy 9-4 and the USA went on to beat Denmark 7-5.
That resulted in a top four of GB, Sweden, Canada and the USA - in that order.
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