Winter Olympics: GB out of men's curling after losing tie-breaker to Switzerland
Last updated on .From the section Winter Olympics
XXIII Olympic Winter Games |
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Venue: Pyeongchang, South Korea Dates: 9-25 February |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, Red Button, Connected TVs, BBC Sport website and mobile app. Full coverage times |
Great Britain's men's curling team are out of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after losing their tie-breaker 9-5 against Switzerland.
Kyle Smith's rink, who had to win to secure a place in the semi-finals later on Thursday, led 4-1 after the fourth end and 5-4 after the eighth.
But Switzerland scored a five-point stone in the ninth end to set up a semi-final against Sweden.
"We gave it our best shot but that's the dream over," said Scot Smith.
"It's a sore one. We started off very strong and we put ourselves in a great position. A couple of missed shots were the difference in the game.
"We gave ourselves the chance of making the semi-finals but we couldn't make it happen."
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GB won silver at Sochi 2014, although David Murdoch's rink has been succeeded by Smith's.
They spurned a chance to clinch qualification on Wednesday by losing their final round-robin game to the USA, but claimed four points from the opening four ends against Switzerland at the Gangneung Curling Centre.
The Swiss levelled but GB edged back in front before Benoit Schwarz made the decisive play in the ninth end, working his final stone through a gap to push the British stones out of the house.
Switzerland also reached the semi-finals of last year's World Championships.
Britain's coach, Viktor Kjell, said: "I just don't know what happened in that ninth end. We missed four or five shots in a row and you cannot afford to do that at this level.
"I thought we'd almost got away with it and then he plays a pistol shot and walks away with a five."
Canada face the USA in the other semi-final on Thursday.
Great Britain's women's play Sweden in the semi-finals on Friday, 23 February (11:05 GMT).
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- Day-by-day guide to what's on
- Full schedule and results
'A fantastic performance by GB' - analysis
Great Britain's 2002 curling gold medallist Rhona Howie on BBC One
Things were going really well for the guys - they were 4-1 up and in control of the game. They were hitting their shots with precision.
It was one of their best starts of the whole week, but Switzerland seemed to step it up in the second half. GB played solid, clinical curling, but just one or two shots made the difference.
Kyle Smith had to guard GB's two stones in the house. He tried to play the guard, and said to them, 'you have your two', but the guard over-curled by two millimetres probably. If it hadn't, it would have worked well.
Even after he made the shot, GB were happy with it, because it was such a small gap for Schwarz to get it through - it was a stone-wide gap.
Schwarz's shot had to be perfect. He played the line, the weight - what a shot.
They have finished in fifth, halfway up the table, and if they had beaten USA they would have been in the top four. For a first Olympic games for them all, they have had a great week. It is a fantastic performance.
Kyle and the team will go home now and play the winner's of the Scottish Championships for a place at the World Championships. But they'll definitely be back, fighting even harder.
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To lose 4 stones in one end is rare as they did against USA and then petuantly throw in the towel, only to compound their errors in the play-off match by losing a 5 stone end, is to my eyes appalling, especially when it is the skipper who is making fundamental mistakes. Fantastic week , my backside.
Agreed. They give themselves nowhere to go when it's all hyped up and they openly support GB
It's to be expected that coverage focusses on events where GB is competing but it is dumbing down for the pundits to support them and lose objectivity. That's up to the fans and viewers
Coleman, Vine etc always created a sense of occasion. Now it's like a chat show
I am afraid they do!!! To have completely failed for six events in a row suggests that she does not have the tactical awareness and mental fortitude to cope under pressure.
The BBC are infamous for hanging their hat on gold medal 'certainties' and in Radcliffe's case in Athens building almost their entire coverage around her with a vomit inducing love in, hanging the gold around her neck days before she actually ran..badly. The BBC have given great coverage back in the day but in the PC world we live in now it just panders to the minority.
Tried to persuade our local rink to try it, but they thought there would not be enough interest...rubbish!
Unfortunately there are no ice rinks playing the sport by where I live would love to see more team represented in England.