Lillehammer, Norway
Saturday 13 February 2016

USA, Italy and Russia remain unbeaten at the Youth Olympic Games Mixed curling event after this morning’s second session of play in Group A.

Also in this session, China won their first game, against Turkey 9-4. At the fourth end break China were a point ahead, 3-2, despite having a single point stolen in the third end. Turkey went in front after the fifth end, 4-3, but scoring three points in each of the sixth and seventh ends saw the Chinese secure a comfortable first win.

USA beat Switzerland by a single point 6-5. At the end of the sixth end they were one point behind, 4-5, but their tactics paid off when they blanked the sixth and scored a two, with the hammer, in the seventh and final end.

Italy won 7-2 against New Zealand and Russia scored single points in the seventh and eighth ends of their game with Japan to secure a 5-3 win.

This afternoon, in Group B, hosts Norway won their first match of the Games, with a 10-3 victory over Czech Republic. Korea also won their first game.

The Czechs scored one point in the first end before Norway scored two points in each of the subsequent ends to establish their lead. The decisive moment of the game though, was when they scored six points after the break, in the fifth end, before Czech Republic scored one more point in the sixth end, at which point they conceded the game.

Canada and Sweden remain undefeated after their second session of play. The Canadians were level with Great Britain, all the way up to the final end, with the Brits having the hammer advantage going into the eighth end. However, a steal of two points saw Canada win, 4-2.

Sweden defeated Brazil 17-0, while Korea beat Estonia 6-4.

They Said It:

Wenxin Zhang; second China (after 9-4 win over Turkey): “We are happy with the one, beause the team just formed. We have more improvements to make, but we are happy with where we are at. The cooperation in the team in this game was better than the last game.”

Maia Ramsfjell; skip Norway (after 10-3 win over Czech Republic): “We are very pleased, we played a really grat game and are happy. We are a new team, so we have a few things we need to practice on, but the key to our win was much better communication.”

GROUP A RESULTS, Session 3:

USA 6-5 Switzerland; Turkey 4-9 China; Italy 7-2 New Zealand; Japan 3-5 Russia

GROUP B RESULTS, Session 4:

Canada 4-2 Great Britain; Estonia 4-6 Korea; Czech Republic 3-10 Norway; Brazil 0-17 Sweden

GROUP A STANDINGS after Session 3 (W - L):

Italy 2-0
Russia 2-0
USA 2-0
China 1-1
Switzerland 1-1
Japan 0-2
New Zealand 0-2
Turkey 0-2

GROUP B STANDINGS after Session 4 (W - L):

Canada 2-0
Sweden 2-0
Czech Republic 1-1
Great Britain 1-1
Korea 1-1
Norway 1-1
Brazil 0-2
Estonia 0-2