 Italy's Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner (Photo: World Curling) are back to their winning ways after suffering their first loss in international competition Thursday. By Cameron Sallaj The reigning Olympic gold medalists and world champions from Italy had an uncharacteristic showing in their second game of the mixed doubles competition in Cortina, giving up five in the first end to ultimately lose to Canada 7-2. This marked the first loss by Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner since the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Championship. On Friday, however, the pair bounced back with two strong performances to keep themselves apart of the playoff hunt at their home Olympics. In the morning, the Italian duo went up against married couple Briar Schwaller-Hurlimann and Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland. This game started well for the Italians as they counted three with the hammer in the first end. This was quickly matched by Switzerland though, who got three right back in the second before stealing one in the third to take the lead. From there, Italy completely dominated the rest of the game, swiping four in the fourth to lead 6-3 at the break. Constantini and Mosaner then stole three in the fifth before taking two more in the sixth to end the game early, 12-4 the final score. With their record improved to 2-1, the Italian champions looked to make it a two-win day against Estonia's Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill in the evening Draw 6. Right away, the host team showed no signs of slowing down as they stole three in the first end and put Estonia on the back foot immediately. They followed this up with a stolen point to lead 4-0. Kaldvee and Lill attempted to crawl back into the game by scoring in four of the next five ends, however, they could only manage singles. Trailing by two coming home, Marie Kaldvee's final spinner shot did not connect with Italy adding another point for a 7-4 win. Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner are the only team in the field in Cortina to not have played a single game together so far this season. In fact, before their loss to Canada, the pair sported a 23-game winning streak dating back to the start of the 2022 Beijing Olympics where they went on an undefeated run to capture the gold medal. Now playing at home in Cortina, the Italian side are looking for a repeat showing as they try to win another Olympic medal. With five round robin games remaining, Constantini and Mosaner will face Sweden and Norway on Saturday before going up against Czechia and Great Britain on Sunday. They will close out the round robin against the United States on Monday. Olympic Mixed Doubles Standings - Draw 6 Great Britain (Dodds/Mouat): 5-0 The United States (Thiesse/Dropkin): 4-0 Canada (Peterman/Gallant): 3-1 Italy (Constantini/Mosaner): 3-1 Switzerland (Schwaller-Hurlimann/Schwaller): 2-2 Sweden (Wrana/Wrana): 2-3 Estonia (Kaldvee/Lill): 1-3 Norway (Skaslien/Nedregotten): 1-3 Czechia (Zelingrova/Chabicovsky): 0-4 South Korea (Kim/Jeong): 0-4 |
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Manitoba's Kate Cameron (Photo: Curling Canada) announced on Monday that the team will look different for the new Olympic quadrennial.
