Great Britain's Kyle Smith (photo) and Thomas Ulsrud from Norway get important wins in Olympic Men's Curling draw 8 to improve to 3-3. Gangneung, Republic of Korea - There were crucial wins for Great Britain and Norway as Sweden notched up their sixth successive win in Sunday evening's eighth session of men's round-robin play at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. Great Britain was taken all the way to an extra end before beating Italy by 7-6, while Norway beat the United States by 8-5. Sweden defeated Japan 11-4 and, in the fourth game of this session, Denmark had an extra end 9-8 win over Korea. Great Britain was looking for their third win so far when they faced Italy, and they moved ahead in the seventh end when their skip Kyle Smith scored two points with a double take-out for a 5-3 lead. Italy battled back but could only score one point in the tenth end to tie the game at 6-6 and force an extra end. That extra end came down to a final draw inside two Italian stones already in the house by Britain's Smith to score one point and win by 7-6. In the game between the United States and Norway, American skip John Shuster missed on his final stone of the fifth end to settle for just one point instead of the three points he was looking for, to take a 4-3 lead into the fifth-end break. By contrast in the very next end, Norway's Thomas Ulsrud was able to hit out a United States stone to score three points and take the lead back, at 6-4. Norway controlled the game after this, stealing single points in both the seventh and eighth ends to emerge as 8-5 victors. Table-toppers Sweden gave themselves a good start against Japan with a score of three points in the first end. They then concluded the game with a nose-hit by their skip Niklas Edin in the eighth end for five points, and an11-4 lead, at which point Japan conceded. These results mean that Great Britain, Japan and Norway now share the crucial fourth position on the table with three wins and three losses. In the fourth game of this session, Denmark beat hosts Korea by 9-8 after an extra end to keep their slim qualification hopes alive. Sweden now has a two-win cushion, having won six games without defeat, over joint second-placed Canada and Switzerland, each with four wins. Korea, on just one win, remains at the bottom of the table. Men session eight results: Sweden 11-4 Japan; Denmark 9-8 Korea; Italy 6-7 Great Britain; United States 5-8 Norway Standings after men session eight (win-loss): Sweden 6-0 Canada 4-2 Switzerland 4-2 Great Britain 3-3 Japan 3-3 Norway 3-3 Denmark 2-4 Italy 2-4 United States 2-4 Korea 1-5 |