Scotland maintain perfect record in World Mixed Doubles Championships

The Scottish pair of Gina Aitken and Bruce Mouat wasted little time completing a comprehensive victory in Lethbridge, Canada, with the game wrapped up in just six ends in an 11-2 scoreline in session 16 – the final one of the day.

That win takes them to the brink of making the play-off places, boasting an unblemished record after five matches – a record unmatched by anyone else in Group B.

Norway remain hot on their heels however, themselves delivering a clinical performance to beat Bulgaria 9-1 for their third win from four this campaign to join Italy in second place.

That was after Bulgaria had arguably hit their peak in the competition, getting their first win in rather resounding style – a 12-1 victory over Serbia that kept them winless.

Elsewhere in the group, Ireland kept up their mixed record with a third win of the campaign, defeating Denmark 7-3.

"We've had a bit of a roller coaster so far but overall, we are pretty pleased," said Ireland's Alison Fyfe. "We just wanted to make it to the knock-out stage. "We got one Olympic point last year so we would like to gain a few more."

There is now just one team in each group left with an unbeaten record, with Scotland, USA, Korea and Switzerland all boasting perfect records alongside the already-qualified Latvia in Canada.

Latvia didn't feature in the later sessions of the day but Belarus picked up a major victory in their group with Japan the scalp, prevailing 9-6.

That saw them join a plethora of Group A teams on a two wins and three defeat record, joining Brazil, Japan and Estonia, the latter prevailing 8-3 over the still winless Canada.

Belarus' Ekaterina Kirillova said: "We are very excited about the result, we like to achieve this victory, and we needed it very much, because we've lost games before.

"We needed to do it for our self-confidence."

Elsewhere in the three sessions, Korea made it five from five with a 9-3 win over China in Group C's top-of-the-table clash, while the same group saw a resounding win for Israel, 10-4 over the Netherlands to get off the mark.

Meanwhile, Norway eased past Bulgaria 9-1 and Sweden edged out Austria 8-6 – a far more tricky encounter than their 14-3 victory over Israel earlier in the day.

Sportsbeat 2017