CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – The British men’s curling team, led by Bruce Mouat, ended their losing streak in spectacular fashion Wednesday, delivering a commanding 9-2 victory over the United States to stay in contention for Olympic medal rounds.
The world champions had endured three consecutive losses over recent days, putting their semifinal aspirations in jeopardy. However, they returned to form against Danny Casper’s American squad, securing the victory with four ends remaining in the match.
“It felt like we were close a lot of the week. We just had a few one or two shots maybe in a game that were going the wrong way for us, and this time we felt like we were getting breaks,” Mouat explained after the match.
“Which we probably hadn’t really felt like we had most of the week. We put in a really good performance.”
The 2022 Olympic silver medalists and current world number-one ranked team now sit in third place with a 5-4 record after completing all their round-robin matches. Norway and Italy are tied for fourth place, each with four victories, and both nations have one game remaining.
“You want to be in control of your own destiny, but now seeing all these other teams trying to still get into the playoffs, it’s hard,” Mouat noted.
“Obviously you want everyone to play well, but you’re supporting their opposition at times.”
In other Wednesday action, Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller and Canada’s Brad Jacobs both secured wins, having already clinched semifinal berths.
The Swiss team maintained their perfect record with a 10-4 triumph over Norway, collecting their eighth victory without a loss. Meanwhile, Canada overcame an early 3-0 deficit to defeat host nation Italy 8-3.
“We’re just enjoying ourselves a lot here. I wanted to get to this stage for my whole career and all my teammates had the same idea,” Schwaller commented.
“It’s all an experience. We want to enjoy ourselves and that we do, and it translates, I think, to the ice.”
The Czech Republic, captained by Lukas Klima, earned their second competition victory by defeating China 10-5 in a matchup between teams in the lower portion of the standings.
The round-robin phase concludes Thursday morning after nine games per team, with the top four advancing to evening semifinals.
