Olympic Curling-Sweden qualifies for semifinals for men, Jones leads Canada to confidence-boosting wins
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BEIJING, February 14 (Reuters) – World champions Sweden became the first team to qualify for the semifinals of the men’s curling competition at the National Aquatics Center on Monday, with their perfect record after six matches that secured them a place in the last four.
Niklas Edin’s rink, winner of the last three world titles, were favorites that came to the Olympics and are the only undefeated team left in the men’s competition after their 7-5 victory over the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
“I think (it is) hunger more than anything else,” Edin said. “We’ve been in the game for a long time. We’ve done it very, very well. And in the last seven, eight years we’ve played many championships and won finals, lost finals and all that.
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“But I think it’s all because we really want to win this … We expect to give ourselves a chance to win.”
Denmark were pushed all the way to an extra finish by Norway but finally took their first win after Mikkel Krause delivered the decisive final point to secure a 6-5 victory in his sixth round-robin match.
Brad Gushue led Canada to a 7-3 win over Italy to strengthen their quest for the playoffs, where the team now sits in third place behind Great Britain and Sweden.
It was the second Olympic competition between Gushue and Italy skipped Joel Retornaz, who led his team to an upset 7-6 victory over the Canadians at home at the 2006 Turin Games.
In the women’s competition, Jennifer Jones and Canada got back on track with decisive wins over ROC and Great Britain while the reigning champions Sweden scraped past Switzerland in the extra final later on Monday.
With its back to the wall after losing three straight round-robin matches, Canada won 11-5 with a dominant display against the ROC.
“One million percent we needed to win that match. It was a huge win,” Jones said before returning to the ice later when Canada betrayed Britain’s playoff hopes after winning 7-3.
“I’ve won things from trailers and when you know you’ve been a frontrunner, you can do it anyway, but you have to get started at these events. Maybe this is the beginning of a roll for us.”
The leaders Switzerland and second-placed Japan kept their positions in the table after six matches, despite 6-5 and 10-5 losses against Sweden and South Korea respectively.
Sweden skipped the United States to go into third place after their victory over world champions Switzerland later on Monday, while Denmark beat ROC 10-5 in the second night.
Teams play nine matches in the preliminary round where the top four reach the semifinals.
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Reporting by Hritika Sharma; Edited by Robert Birsel, Ken Ferris and Pritha Sarkar
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