Curling-Italy beat Britain to claim mixed doubles bronze

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 10 - Italy's Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini saw out a tense 5-3 win over Britain in the mixed doubles curling competition at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Tuesday to add the bronze medal to their gold from four years ago.

The Italians, who said after their 9-8 loss to the United States in the semi-finals that they had given their opponents too many chances, were miserly from the start in the bronze medal clash.

The world champions did well to limit Britain's scoring opportunities and steal points at every opportunity to build a 3-2 lead heading into the sixth end.

In that end, Britain set up three stones in scoring position, but under tremendous pressure, Constantini threaded her final shot through a narrow gap and onto the button to clinch a crucial point.

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Italy controlled the closing stages, restricting their opponents to one point in the penultimate end before scoring one more with their powerplay to secure victory, sparking massive celebrations from the partisan crowd at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.

Constantini and Mosaner had beaten the British duo three times previously, once at the Beijing Games in 2022 and twice at last year's World Championships including in the final, but they lost 9-6 when the pairs met in the round-robin stage in Cortina.

For Britain's Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds, it marked another crushing fourth-place finish after also missing out on a medal in Beijing, though this disappointment might sting even more in light of their impressive round-robin performance.

"It was a tight game," Dodds said.

"We had chances and we probably just didn't capitalise on them. It was a lot stronger performance than last night. That was the one thing we wanted to do.

"And the Italians played really well. If we had a half shot, they really capitalised on that. So, yeah, congratulations on them getting the bronze medal."

Mouat and Dodds were among the leading hopes for Britain, who are yet to pick up any medals at the Games.

Curling provided Britain's only two medals four years ago in Beijing - a gold in women's curling won by Eve Muirhead's team, which featured Dodds, and a silver for the Mouat-led men's team.

All four competitors are in action in the team events at the Olympics, with the men's competition beginning on Wednesday and the women following on Thursday. REUTERS