Undefeated Italy into semis by beating Sweden in Olympic mixed doubles curling

BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Undefeated Italy entered the semifinals by securing its eighth straight win after defeating former world champion Sweden 12-8 in the 12th round-robin session of mixed doubles curling at Beijing 2022 on Sunday evening.

Sweden's Oskar Eriksson and Almida de Val opened the event with two points, but the Italian pair of Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini swapped three single points respectively in the following three ends, taking the lead by 3-2 in the first half in the National Aquatics Center.

In the fifth end, capitalizing on Mosaner's miss of sliding the stone through the house, Sweden rushed forward and took a 5-3 lead.

However, the situation was twisted in the sixth end when the Italian duo called power-play and scored five points with sound build-up and a last shot that cleared out Sweden's freeze to lead 8-5, but Sweden soon leveled things up at 8-8.

In the last end, Italy scored four points through splendid build-up and a good final shot to take the win.

"I think we are a strong team, but I think every team here is strong. So we really want to play our best. And this is what we're doing. But I think Sweden, Canada, [Britain], every team is strong," said Constantini, who tops the competition's female shot success percentage. "So we are just doing our best on the field."

Italy also beat China 8-4 in the afternoon, with the hosts having lost 6-5 to Britain in the morning.

The United States saw two defeats on the same day, losing 10-8 to the Czech Republic and 6-5 to Switzerland.

Defending champion Canada defeated the Czech Republic 7-5 but lost to Australia 10-8 with an extra end. Notably, Canada's John Morris also doubles up as coach for the Australian duo, and Morris scored no points in the first half against his students.

"Because they trained with him in Canada quite a lot over the past year and a half, they know each other," said Australia's Pete Manasantivongs. "Whenever you are playing close friends, it's very challenging emotionally, but you just want both of you to play your best."

Surrounded by the happiness of being able to finish their games, the winless Australian pair also beat Switzerland 9-6 in the afternoon.

Norway overrode both Sweden and Britain 6-2 on the day and entered the semifinals together with Britain.

Canada next plays on Monday, when only a victory over undefeated Italy will send them to the semifinals.