BEIJING, February 11 (Xinhua) – Canada lost to PyeongChang 2018 bronze medalist Switzerland 5-3 in the fourth round robin session of the men’s curling in Beijing 2022 here on Friday night.
This was Canada’s first loss after crushing Denmark and edging Norway.
Skipped by Turin 2006 champion Brad Gushue, Canada was down 3-1 after five finishes, but managed to level the game at 3-3 in the sixth final.
Skipper Benoit Schwarz chose to drop the seventh end and scored a point in the eighth with the hammer, which led to 4-3 for Switzerland.
Switzerland competed further after Gushue failed in his attempt to play a triple takeout in the ninth end, and a double selection by Schwarz forced Gushue to let in before the final shot.
“We are obviously disappointed,” admitted 41-year-old Gushue. “You know we played an okay match, but we missed a few shots. We had a couple of bad breaks against us as well. Now it’s just a matter of regrouping and for the next match we’re trying to find a way to get a little better.”
After winning the gold medal in Turin in 2006, Gushue never expected it would cost him 16 years to be on the Olympic stage again.
“I do feel a certain amount of pressure, but nowhere do I feel the pressure I felt 16 years ago. You know I’m older,” he said.
On the following two sheets in the evening session, Great Britain beat Norway 8-3 and Denmark was beaten by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) 10-2, which was mainly due to their miss in the fifth end, which gave a steal of six points on ROC .
In the third round robin session, China defeated Denmark 5-4 for their first victory. A remarkable thing is that when China made its Olympic debut at Vancouver in 2010, its first victory was also achieved against Denmark.
Other measures saw defending champion USA defeated Britain 9-7, Switzerland overwhelmed ROC 6-3 and Italy beat Sweden 9-3.
Source: sn.dk