Winter Olympics - Team GB’s semi-final hopes in the balance after Canada defeat in women's curling at Beijing 2022
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Updated 14/02/2022 at 19:11 GMT
Canada moved level with Team GB in the standings, with both teams now winning three and losing three of their six games to date. Team GB return to the ice for a showdown with Japan on Tuesday morning UK time, before facing China and ROC to conclude the round-robin stage of the tournament. They may have to win all three games to advance.
'Taste of defeat' - Team GB's women come up short against Canada in curling clash
Team GB’s hopes of reaching the women's curling semi-finals were dealt a blow with a 7-3 defeat to Canada at Beijing 2022.
Great Britain have now won three and lost three games so far, and head into the final three games knowing there is little room for error. This result puts Canada level with GB in the standings, and there may not be room for both sides in the last four.
There was little to choose between the two teams in a cagey start to the contest, with Jennifer Jones taking the first end in Canada’s favour after rolling a yellow onto the button with their final stone.
Jones nearly made the decisive action in the second end after knocking out stones from Vicky Wright and Eve Muirhead, but she cleaned up with her final shot to make it a blank score.
Team GB managed one point on the board in the third end, before a blank score in the fourth left the contest still in the balance.
Momentum then shifted in the Canadians’ favour in the fifth end when Jones delivered a brilliant final shot to secure three points.
This was despite Muirhead’s effort to leave Great Britain’s last stone beside the remaining red on the button, as Canada went 4-1 up at the halfway stage.
It left Muirhead’s team with plenty of work to do heading into the sixth end, as Kaitlyn Lawes took out two GB guards by bouncing her stone off one red in an excellent shot.
Wright did well to position the next red, but saw it picked out by Jones, who was in fine form on the night. Nevertheless, Muirhead rolled in a red narrowly ahead of Canada’s yellow stone to cut the score to 4-2.
It did not look like being Team GB’s day with promising openings soon cancelled out. Jennifer Dodds saw her red swept into the centre of the house, with Team GB hoping to build another opportunity.
There were also two guards in place, but it was Canada that claimed another point thanks to another fine shot from the impressive Jones. She knocked one of her stones towards the centre and removed Team GB’s danger stone from the button.
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Halley Duff and Jennifer Dodds
Image credit: Getty Images
Any hopes of a GB victory looked slim, with Jones integral once again in extending Canada’s lead – this time to 5-2 after the seventh end.
It all meant that GB needed to take either a two or three from one of their final ends in order to avoid defeat.
They made progress by cutting Canada’s lead to 5-3 after the eighth end, when Muirhead landed a straightforward shot with her final stone to keep their hopes alive.
But that hope was effectively over when Jones got a single for Canada in the ninth end to leave the Brits with a mountain to climb heading into the last end.
It needed to be perfect from GB to have any chance of completing the most remarkable of comebacks, but in the end, they fell short.
Canada took a timeout with three stones all lying around the button, and resumed with Jones taking a safe shot to drop a high guard, leaving Muirhead with it all to do in the final shot.
However, despite a solid effort, it was Canada that took an extra point to leave the final score at 7-3.
"It was a little frustrating, I didn’t feel like we were too far away," said skip Muirhead. "It was a matter of inches in that game.
"The curling gods aren't always with you - let's hope in our last three games that we play well."
Team GB will be hoping for better luck when they return back to the ice for a showdown with Japan on Tuesday morning UK time.
"Japan are always going to be a tough game. We'll come out with a lot of fire and hopefully get the win.
"We need to take every game from now as if it's the final.
"I've been in this position a lot of times, knowing that you need to win the rest of your matches. We just need to learn from our mistakes and what we did wrong.
"We need to go back, refocus and forget about this game. It's hard to just forget about it but we're capable of doing that and I do believe we're capable of winning our last three."
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