CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) — China secured its first round-robin win by defeating host Italy in the eighth session of the men’s curling competition at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Winter Games here on Monday.
After racing to a 4-0 lead, China absorbed an Italian response in the fourth end and then took control with a decisive four in the fifth, going on to close out an 11-4 victory.
China’s skip Xu Xiaoming said the team found extra motivation with Chinese New Year approaching.
« Firstly, everyone is so excited, especially today as it’s [the eve of] the Chinese New Year. We got our first win beating the host nation Italy with a large crowd cheering for them. There was a lot of pressure on our side, but we kept calm, focused on our performance and won the game, » Xu said.
Asked what changed, Xu added: « Everybody desires medals and feels this pressure, but today we forgot about that. We just focused on our own performance, stayed composed and played our game. »
In other men’s matches, Germany kept its semifinal hopes alive by beating 2022 Olympic champion Sweden 7-3. Canada defeated the Czech Republic 8-2, while Norway edged Britain 7-6.
Switzerland leads the standings with five wins. Canada is second with five wins and one loss, while Norway and the United States are tied at 4-2.
In the women’s competition, Sweden stayed unbeaten with a sixth straight victory, beating world No. 1 Switzerland 6-4. Switzerland later bounced back to beat Britain 10-6 to improve to 4-2.
Elsewhere, South Korea edged China 10-9, Italy beat the United States 7-2, and Canada defeated Japan 9-6. ■
