China lose to reigning champions Canada in mixed doubles curling at Beijing 2022

BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Defending champions Canada defeated China 8-6 in the mixed doubles curling competition here on Friday, claiming their third straight victory in the round robin at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Compared to their Canadian counterparts Rachel Homan and John Morris, both world champions, Chinese duo of Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi are far less experienced as they have partnered for less than three months.

Fan took the advantage of the last stone to score one point in the first end, but Canada played a tap-up for two points in the second end. Ling failed to draw his second rock near the button in the third end, which he later explained that the rock was affected by a small unknown substance on the ice. The Canadians took the chance to steal two points to lead 4-1.

The game remained tight as both teams scored when they had last-stone advantage. Down by 6-3, the Chinese team called the power play in the sixth end. Morris and Homan both responded with double take-outs, limiting China to only one point in the end. The final score after eight ends was 8-6 in favor of Canada.

"Being able to stay in the game until the last end against one of the best teams in the world, I'll give us 80 points on our performance," Ling said.

"We will learn from the lessons of the previous games and face the coming games with a new mentality," Fan added.

The Canadian duo recorded a 7-5 win over Switzerland in Friday morning's session without calling any power plays, during which the team calling have a great advantage.

"We use our power play sometimes in a different manner. I don't want to give you all my strategy because then the other teams will know, and we won't have that advantage anymore," said Morris.

Also on Friday, Australia suffered back-to-back defeats, 7-6 to Sweden and 9-8 to Britain. Five defeats in a row hurt Morris, who used to be Team Australia's coach and led the team qualify for the Olympics for the first time.

"It hurts me to see them not succeeding. But I think they've made wonderful strides to get to the Olympics, just to be here," said Morris.

Italy maintained their unbeaten run by fending off Norway 11-8 and defeating the Czech Republic, which conceded after the sixth end, 10-2.