Source: Team GB

Curlers agonisingly miss out despite victory against New Zealand

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Another brilliant performance from Team GB’s curlers, this time against New Zealand, wasn’t enough to see them through to the knock-out stages at Lausanne 2020 as Norway held on to defeat a spirited French side and knock the Brits out on head-to-head record.

Team GB came into their final round robin fixture with their destiny out of their hands after two earlier defeats against Turkey and Norway had hampered their progress. The early exchanges of the match saw three points exchanged in the first and second end.

Another three points for Team GB in the third end put them in a commanding position but the Kiwis chipped away at the lead in the fourth and fifth end to tie things up and then take the lead in the sixth.

Not deterred Team GB evened things up again in the seventh end before some ice cool play by skip Ross Craik allowed Team GB to score two precious points to secure the win though Norway secured the second qualification spot behind New Zealand as they saw off France on the adjacent rink to end Team GB’s Youth Olympic hopes.

Biathlete Shawna Pendry was back in action, this time in the women’s 6km sprint at Les Tuffes Nordic Centre. Pendry, who had previously finished with a personal best of 39th in the 10km event, went even better in the 6km, finishing an impressive 12th place in a field of 94 – another personal best.

Team GB are guaranteed two medals in the mixed country 3-on-3 ice hockey event, as Mack Stewart and Amy Robery both secured their respective pathways through to tomorrow’s gold medal matches.

Stewart’s Team Red are finding form at the right time, making it four straight wins in the competition, following an 11-7 victory over teammate Evan Nauth’s Team Brown. They will meet Team Green in tomorrow’s final – a team they narrowly lost 8-9 to in the preliminary round.

Following today’s triumph, Stewart said “It’s a pretty big deal getting to the final because we’re now guaranteed a medal – we’ve got one more game where we’re hoping for gold. We started off slowly today, but we’ve now beaten a big team (brown) twice in two days which helps us mentally.

“We’re on a four game win streak right now, so tomorrow we just need to play as we have been playing because it seems to be working.”

Amy Robery’s Team Black launched a stunning comeback to win 11-7 over Team Brown in the women’s semi-finals, despite finding themselves 5-3 down after the first period. They go into tomorrow’s gold medal match against Team Yellow with a record of seven wins out of eight, and Robery is delighted with the team’s progress.

“It’s so surreal – as a team we can’t believe we’ve actually made it to the final. We are all so happy for each other and I’m so proud of my teammates – we’re going to go into the final and try and win it.

“It was very intense – we were level with the other team throughout. We kept going, we kept working and then we scored a few goals in the second period – finding momentum at the right time. We switched tactics to defence towards the end and managed to hold on to the victory.

“Our team has come so far – the fact we’re going to be going home with a medal is amazing. Although we’re guaranteed a medal, we’ve come this far and we want to go all the way and get that gold.”

Evan Nauth and Mirren Foy will also be in action, playing in the men’s and women’s bronze medal match – starting 11:00 GMT.

At Les Diablerets, Sophie Foster secured a decent 20th place finish in the women’s slalom, adding to her 33rd place finish in the Super G last Friday. The 16-year-old clocked 1:37:05 over her two runs, moving up 21 places from her starting bib number of 41.

Daisi Daniels registered another DNF, while Jack Cunningham and Robert Holmes failed to place in the men’s event with a DNF and DSQ respectively.

Alpine Skiing – Women’s Giant Slalom:
Daisi Daniels – DNF
Sophie Foster – 20th
Alpine Skiing – Men’s Slalom:
Jack Cunningham – DNF
Robert Holmes – DSQ
Biathlon – Women’s 6km Sprint:
Shawna Pendry – 12th
Curling – Mixed Team:
Great Britain 9-7 New Zealand
Ice Hockey – Women’s Mixed NOC 3-on-3 semi-finals:
Mirren Foy (blue) – lost 5-7 versus (yellow)
Amy Robery (black) – won 11-7 versus (brown)
Ice Hockey – Men’s Mixed NOC 3-on-3:
Evan Nauth (brown) – lost 7-9 versus (red)
Mack Stewart (red) – won 9-7 versus (brown)

Courtesy of Team GB