Winter Olympics: Great Britain men's curlers lose to defending champions USA

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GB curler Grant Hardie plays a shot in match against the USA

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 were beaten 9-7 by Olympic champions the United States in the first of their two matches on Friday.

Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan fought back from an early 5-2 deficit but the Americans were clinical in the ninth end to take a decisive lead.

It means the British rink have one win and one loss so far.

They next face Norway, at 12:05 GMT, while the women's team play at 06:05.

Eve Muirhead's side take on South Korea in their third match, having recovered from an opening loss to beat Sweden 8-2 on Thursday.

In both events, the 10 competing teams play each other once in a round-robin format, with the top four progressing to the semi-finals.

The USA's gold medal in Pyeonchang four years ago was such a shock that they have not been widely tipped to defend their title.

But skip John Shuster is a wily competitor, and his 100% accuracy in the first five ends put Britain under pressure.

In the third end, Mouat was left with a difficult take out and, when his stone slipped through a gap, the USA were able to get three for a 5-2 lead.

But the Scottish quartet rallied to score two in the fifth end and steal another two in the next to lead 6-5, only for the Americans to regain control.

At 7-7 in the penultimate end, they crafted a chance for four with Shuster's last stone and though they only took two, they went into the last with a two-shot lead.

And a rare error from Mouat ended Britain's hopes of forcing an extra end.

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