Italy secures semis berth with 6th straight win in Olympic curling mixed doubles

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Italy beat the reigning world champion Britain 7-5 for its sixth straight victory, securing a semifinal berth of the curling mixed doubles at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games here on Saturday.

The first two ends saw a 1-1 tie between the two sides. British duo of Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat stole one point in the third for 2-1, before Italian pair of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner scored two points with a double takeout in the fourth and rushed ahead to 4-2 by stealing one point in the fifth.

After the Britons levelled it at 4-4 with two points in the sixth, the decisive moment came when Constantini won the battle of sharp minds in the seventh by breaking Britain's freeze to score three points and lead for good at 7-4.

Also on Saturday, host China first lost to the United States 7-5 in the afternoon, then conceded to Norway 9-6 in the evening for its fourth straight loss.

During their evening match, the Chinese pair of Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi led only once by winning the first end 1-0 as Norway took the following three ends in a row for a 4-1 advantage. After the Chinese duo managed to score two points to cut the deficit to one point at 4-3, the Norwegians displayed their prowess by scoring five points with a double takeout in the sixth for an astonishing lead of 9-3.

Despite taking three points in the seventh, the Chinese players congratulated their rivals by giving up the last end.

In other matches of the day, Australia remained winless with a 10-4 loss to Norway in the morning and a 7-3 defeat to Italy in the afternoon. The Czech Republic also suffered a pair of losses, beaten by Britain 8-3 and by Switzerland 11-3.

The reigning champion Canada lost to Sweden 6-2 in the morning, but beat the United States 7-2 in the afternoon. Earlier in the morning, Switzerland lost to former world champion Sweden 6-1.