Team GB’s curlers endured mixed fortunes on the ice as Bruce Mouat showed no ill effects from missing out on a medal in the mixed doubles to get off to a winning start in the team competition against Italy.
But the British women lost their opening match of the team event at the Winter Olympics in Beijing to Switzerland today 6-5 following an extra end before bouncing back to dominate Sweden 8-2.
Mouat had cut a disconsolate figure after missing out on a spot in the final and subsequently losing the bronze-medal match in the mixed doubles. But despite falling behind the Italians, he turned the screwed in the final ends to take a well-deserved 7-5 victory.
In the women’s, Eve Muirhead and her team of Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff had the chance to put their match out of the Swiss team’s reach when leading 4-2 after the seventh end but could not capitalise.
A misjudgement by Muirhead gave Switzerland the opportunity to get the two they needed to level the match.
Then an overthrow at the next end meant the British team managed just one. Opposition skip Anna Paetz got a single to force the extra end during which Muirhead had a stone for the win but sent it just fractionally long for the narrowest of defeats.
The British team made amends later on Thursday in their second round-robin match against Sweden thanks to a four at the fourth end by Muirhead from which the Swedes never recovered.
Kim strikes gold again
In the women’s snowboard halfpipe, much like she had done four years ago, American Chloe Kim was a class apart from the rest of the field.
Her opening run of 94 points meant she was well clear of her rivals and enabled her to attempt to become the first woman in halfpipe history to land a switch 1260. She came agonisingly close on both her second and third runs but could not make it stick.
Spain’s Queralt Castellet was the only other competitor to land a run in the 90s to take the silver while Japanese athlete Sena Tomita rounded off the podium.
Following her second Olympic gold at the age of 21, Kim said: “I am so proud of myself. I had the worst practice ever, I probably landed my run twice when I’m used to landing it eight times so that puts you in a weird headspace.
“I overflowed with emotion when I was able to land it on the first go and it opened up a lot of opportunity for me to go try something new.”
In the only other snowboard event of the day, Britain’s Huw Nightingale, like Charlotte Bankes the day before him, failed to make it into medal contention as he finished last in the opening round of elimination races.
Chen blows them all away
In the men’s figure skating, Nathan Chen made amends for his PyeongChang disappointment as the 22-year-old pulled off a world record score to win gold.
The competition had been billed as a duel with Japan’s defending Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanya but, as he had done in his short program, he fell when attempting to land the first quadruple axel in competition to finish fourth.
It left Hanyu’s countrymen Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno to take the silver and bronze respectively.
Medals look well out of the reach of Britain’s men in the skeleton event at the halfway point. After two of the competition’s four runs, Matt Weston lies 13th and Marcus Wyatt 17th.
Winter Olympics medal table
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
|
1 |
Germany |
5 |
3 |
0 |
8 |
2 |
Norway |
4 |
3 |
4 |
11 |
3 |
Sweden |
4 |
1 |
2 |
7 |
4 |
USA |
3 |
5 |
1 |
9 |
5 |
Austria |
3 |
4 |
4 |
11 |
6 |
Netherlands |
3 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
7 |
China |
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
8 |
Italy |
2 |
4 |
1 |
7 |
9 |
ROC |
2 |
3 |
6 |
11 |
10 |
Slovenia |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
- |
Great Britain |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
