Winter Olympics: Great Britain's men's curlers close to last four; women's hopes dented

Great Britain's men's curlers remain on track for the semi-finals of the Winter Olympics after edging past Switzerland, but the women's team's play-off hopes were dented by a 7-3 loss to Canada.

Earlier, Bruce Mouat's rink beat the Swiss 6-5 with the game's final stone.

They sit second in the standings with five wins and just one defeat.

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Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan face unbeaten world champions Sweden at 12:05 GMT on Tuesday, where they will have the chance to go top of the table and effectively qualify for the knockout rounds with two games to spare.

Before that, Muirhead's women's team face a must-win match against Japan (06:05) in pursuit of the six victories that would likely secure a last-four spot.

The match against Jennifer Jones' Canada - who started out as one of the medal favourites but won just two of their opening five games - was pivotal, given both sides' small margin for error.

And Jones, gold medallist in Sochi in 2014 and now 47, used all of her experience to land two double takeouts - each time taking two British stones out of the scoring circle - in the fifth end for a 4-1 lead at the halfway mark.

It was a blow Britain failed to recover from, with Jones able to thwart Muirhead's attempts to take more than one score from an end consistently.

Canada's score of one in the ninth gave them a decisive three-point lead, and they added another in the last to draw level with Britain on three victories, but above them in the standings on head-to-head record.

Mouat's rink march on

Meanwhile, with Sweden and third-place Canada still to play, the men's match against Switzerland - who had won three and lost two of their games - also took on vital importance in the play-off race.

Mouat's rink were in control at 5-3 heading into the ninth end, but twice missed chances to take out a Swiss stone, which allowed Benoit Schwarz to take two with his last and level the match at 5-5.

But the Scottish quartet - world silver medallists and European champions - proved their mettle under pressure in the last end.

With the benefit of the hammer, Mouat was able to take out Schwarz's final draw to score the one they needed to clinch a fourth straight win.

"I made a silly mistake at nine and Benoit [Schwarz] made such a good one at 10, so it gives you nerves," Mouat told BBC Sport. "But I'm glad that when I'm feeling the nerves I can make the shots."

"We would have to win out to get top of the board," the GB skip said of Tuesday's meeting with Sweden. "We've played Sweden hundreds of times but feel were playing well enough to win."

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