Pilsen, Czech Republic
Friday 8 December 2017

Denmark moved into a clear lead at the top of the rankings after their 6-1 win over Germany in Friday morning’s fifth session of men’s round-robin play in the Olympic Qualification Event, being staged in Pilsen, Czech Republic.

This game saw the Danes carve out steals in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth ends, after which a single point to Denmark in the eighth end was enough to persuade Germany to concede and give Denmark their fourth win.

Czech Republic brought themselves back into contention with a 10-7 win over China. This result places them in joint second slot alongside China and Italy, who lost to Finland (7-3) in this session, on three wins.

In the second end of this game, Czech skip Jiri Snitil hit out a Chinese stone to score four points to take a 4-1 lead. Then, in the fourth end, Snitil took out two Chinese stones to leave two of his own in the house to score two points and move onto a 6-2 lead, on the way to their 10-7 win.

Finland, Germany and Russia, who beat Netherlands by 9-6 in this session, share fifth place on two wins each, and, with two more round-robin sessions to be played, all three still have the possibility of reaching the play-offs.

Netherlands are now on just one win and lie at the foot of the table.

The next live games, on national broadcasters and World Curling TV (note geo-blocking applies), at this event will be Denmark v China and Italy v Czech Republic women at 14:00, Central European Time (+1 hours, Greenwich Mean Time) on Friday (8 December) afternoon.

They said it

Rasmus Stjerne; skip, Denmark (after 6-1 win over Germany): “We’re starting to shape our form now and get on a roll so we feel quite confident right now. It was closer before the break than it actually appeared. We left Alex with some really tough shots. After we were up 3-0 they tried to go all in, and it back-fired.

“It was controversial for us not to play the Euros but we knew we wanted to be ready for this and have some extra gas in the tank, and that’s where we are right now. We feel confident and full of energy.”

Jiri Snitil; skip, Czech Republic (after 10-7 win over China): “We started pretty good except the first end which was a little shaky, but the second end was really solid. Last night we had a talk about making the middle part of our game better and it worked today, but I’m keeping it secret for the next games.”

Aku Kauste; skip, Finland (after 7-3 win over Italy): “We’re still hanging on. That was a good comeback after yesterday’s loss. We played a pretty good game yesterday but just couldn’t pull it off. We just wanted to keep going and be aggressive for the whole game and trust in what we were doing. Hopefully we will win both of our remaining games, but we need some help from the others.”

Men’s session five results: Germany 1-6 Denmark; Finland 7-3 Italy; Netherlands 6-9 Russia; Czech Republic 10-7 China

Standings after men’s session five (W-L):

Denmark 4-1
China 3-2
Czech Republic 3-2
Italy 3-2
Finland 2-3
Germany 2-3
Russia 2-3
Netherlands 1-4

To keep up-to-date with all the action from these championships, and the teams’ journey to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, follow us on Twitter, Instagram (@worldcurling) and Facebook (/WorldCurlingFederation) and use the hashtags: #OQE2017 #Roadto2018 #curling

WCTV highlights