GB men's curlers' semi-final hopes on line after shock defeat

ByRichard Winton

BBC Sport senior journalist at Cortina Curling Stadium

Great Britain's men's curling Winter Olympics medal hopes have been cast into doubt after a shock 8-6 defeat by Norway left them scrambling to make the semi-finals in Cortina.

Bruce Mouat's world champions had lost two of their opening six matches, but were expected to beat the Norwegians for their fifth victory of the competition.

Leading 4-2 after six ends, they appeared to be in good shape. But a few untimely errors, combined with a disciplined display by their unheralded opponents, left them 6-4 down with two ends left.

Mouat's attempted triple takeout in the penultimate end was a fraction out, but still yielded two to level the scores going into the last.

However, Norway held their nerve with the hammer to close out an unexpected victory.

Given results elsewhere,, external five wins might still prove to be enough to reach Thursday's semis. But the British rink will need to beat both Canada on Tuesday (18:05 GMT) and the United States the next day (13:05) to be sure of making the last four.

"We need to win our next two to make sure we're definitely in the semis," lead Hammy McMillan told BBC Sport. "We're doing a lot of the right things, we just need to find that extra inch."

The women's rink are in even more significant peril, after a win and a loss on Monday left them needing favours to reach the medal matches.

Denmark were seen off 7-2 in the morning, but world silver medallists Switzerland ultimately proved just too strong for the inexperienced British team, winning 10-6.

The Scottish quartet score their first double of the game to lead after six ends, but the Swiss responded immediately with three points of their own.

The inexperienced GB team pulled level with two ends to go but a magnificent final stone earned Switzerland four in the ninth end to immediately finish the contest.

Having now lost four of their opening six games, Rebecca Morrison's rink need to beat the United States (08:05 GMT) and Japan (18:05) on Wednesday, then hosts Italy on Thursday (13:05), to have any chance of reaching the last four.

"We need to come back in a couple of days and try and get some wins," Morrison told BBC Sport. "We thrive under pressure and we've got to keep fighting. You never know what can happen."

ByEmma Smith

BBC Sport journalist at Milano Ice Skating Arena

Team GB's Niall Treacy suffered his third crash in as many short track speed skating events as his Winter Olympics ended when he failed to progress from the 500m heats.

The only British representative in short track, Treacy surprisingly reached the 1500m final on Saturday but crashed out and then also fell in the 1,000m heats.

The 25-year-old says the shortest distance is his least favourite, declaring himself to be "not a natural sprinter".

Treacy had a wobbly start as he was clipped on the opening corner by South Korea's Rim Jong-un - an 18-year-old high school student who won bronze in the 1,000m - to require a restart.

But there was no reprieve for Treacy, as he skidded out midway through the full race under no pressure.

It ends British interest in short track, and the sport has struggled since losing £4.8m in UK Sport funding after failing to win a medal at PyeongChang 2018.

GB sent a team of five to short track events eight years ago - but that is down to one in Milan.

Dutchman Jens van'T Wout, who has already won both the 1,000m and 1500m, remains in the hunt for a golden treble after avoiding a mass pile-up to win his heat.

The remainder of the 500m competition - with two further knock-out rounds before the final - takes place on Tuesday.

ByJess Anderson

BBC Sport journalist in Cortina

British two-man bobsleigh team Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence suffered a disappointing start to their Olympic campaign - now sitting eighth at the halfway point of the competition.

Their combined time of 1:51:54 after two heats leaves them 1.64 seconds off the pace of German team Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer in top spot with two more German teams occupying the other podium places before Tuesday's medal-deciding runs.

Hall and Lawrence, who is a serving Royal Marine, were unable to improve on their run-one position after a heavy bump near the top of the track on their second heat led to more errors and a struggle to make up time.

"It was definitely a very difficult day. The track is extremely difficult to be consistent down, especially in a bobsleigh," said Hall, who is GB's most decorated bobsleigh World Cup pilot.

"We didn't quite do well enough on our second run, we lost quite a bit of time to some and gained on others. We need to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do better tomorrow."

Pilot Hall will also lead the charge for a medal in the four-man event later this week. While Germany's Francesco Friedrich, who is currently third, is aiming to do the treble double - win two and four-man gold for the third Games in a row.

6-22 February

Milan-Cortina