Winter Olympics: GB men's curlers beat Canada to set up USA semi-final

2 years ago 23

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Team GB curlers Hammy McMilla, Grant Hardie, and Bobby Lammie

Hosts: Beijing, China Dates: 4-20 February
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds; live text and highlights on BBC Sport website and mobile app

Great Britain's men's curlers defeated Canada 5-2 to set up a semi-final meeting with defending champions United States at the Winter Olympics.

Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan can guarantee at least a silver medal with a win and end Team GB's long wait.

The Scottish quartet finished top of the standings by edging out the Canadians, who are also through.

They return to the ice at 12:05 GMT for their last-four match.

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"If we go out and play our best game then we'll be tough to beat, we're playing really well and I'm really happy with how we're communicating out there," Mouat told BBC Sport.

"We will just have to try and replicate what we did out there today."

Before that, Eve Muirhead's rink face the Russian Olympic Committee at 06:05 needing a win and some favourable results elsewhere to reach the semi-finals of the women's competition.

The men had already sealed their play-off spot with two games to spare, but were keen to maintain their momentum after six straight wins, while top spot also means they will take hammer advantage in the semi-final and in a potential final.

Canada - led by 2006 gold medallist Brad Gushue - have high hopes of winning the competition but were left frustrated by a disciplined British display.

Gushue was left with a tough final shot to promote one of his stones in the sixth end, and his miss gave Britain a steal of one for a 4-2 lead and once again they proved too good to catch.

The Canadian skip was short with his final draw in the eighth to give Mouat's team another one for a three-score lead, which Canada conceded as too big to overcome midway through the ninth end.

Meanwhile, the USA beat Denmark 7-5 to ensure they snuck into the last play-off berth.

John Shuster's rink are the only side to have beaten Britain so far, as they look to repeat their feat of 2018, when they scraped into the last four before claiming a shock gold medal.

"It was a while ago so it's hard to remember the game [the 9-7 loss to USA] but that wasn't our best performance," Mouat added.

"We've been playing really well after that and we came right back and bounced back against the Norwegians and played one of our best games."

Canada will meet Sweden in the other semi-final.

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