Canada bring Swiss curlers back to earth

Swiss skipper Andreas Schwaller has kept his men on course for the semis Keystone

The Swiss men's curling team have suffered their first defeat at the world championships in Lausanne. After earlier wins over the United States and Germany, Andreas Schwaller's side were beaten 9-3 on Sunday by hot favourites Canada.

The match was a close affair after six ends, with Canada holding just a 5-3 lead. But a number of errors by the Swiss team saw the North Americans register four points in the seventh end, at which point Switzerland conceded defeat.

Despite Sunday’s set-back the team from Biel are still in a good position to reach the semi-finals, and thereby guarantee themselves the Swiss berth at next year’s Winter Olympics.

By winning two of their opening three matches, Schwaller’s men are currently joint second in the standings along with Finland, Canada and Norway. Sweden lead the way with a perfect three wins from three games.

While the Swiss men’s team remain on course for next weekend’s semi-finals, the hopes of the women’s side are already looking slender.

Nadja Heuer’s Solothurn team need to come away from Lausanne with at least a bronze medal if they’re to overtake Bern in the race for an Olympic spot. At the moment, though, Heuer’s side are propping up the world championship standings after losing their first four games.

After losing to the relatively weak sides from Russia, Japan and Scotland, the Swiss women showed signs of improvement on Sunday when they lost only narrowly (5-7) to the undefeated United States team.

However, Switzerland will probably now need to win all five of their remaining matches against teams of the calibre of Sweden, Norway, Germany and Canada, to have any chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.

swissinfo with agencies