China beat Britain to reach men's curling semifinals

SOCHI, Feb. 17 -- China edged Britain 6-5 in its last round-robin game Monday to reach the semifinals of the men's curling for the first time at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

China, who finished eighth with two wins and seven losses at Vancouver 2010, created its best result here with seven wins and two losses.

China placed third after Sweden and Canada, and will meet Canada on Wednesday's semifinal. They lost to the defending champions 8-9 Sunday.

"I've said our goal is to make the play-offs," said China's coach Marcel Rocque. "Now we make it real. I am very very happy."

"The boys trained really really hard, and they deserve the win," he added.

China found its rhythm gradually after trailing 1-2 after three ends and made it 5-3. In the eighth end, China's skip Liu Rui played a hit and roll to sit in the four foot behind the guards, which forced Britain to play a draw to the four foot that they came up short giving China a steal of one.

Norway lost to Denmark 3-5 and had to fight for a semifinal berth with a tiebreak against Britain.

Russia beat Germany 8-7, while Switzerland defeated the United States 6-3.