Curling at Beijing 2022 Olympics Day 5 round-up and results: Australia shock Canada, Great Britain and Norway reach semis

Team GB and Norway join unbeaten Italy in the semi-finals as Australia deliver an upset for the ages against Olympic champions Canada.

4 minBy Chloe Merrell
Australia's Tahli Gill in action against Team Canada at Beijing 2022
(2022 Getty Images)

Great Britain and Norway join undefeated Italy in the Beijing 2022 mixed doubles curling semi-finals after Australia bested Olympic champions Canada in one of the greatest upsets in Olympic Winter Games history on Sunday (6 February).

Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt, who were the only winless pair before today, defeated Switzerland 9-6 before pulling off a stunning upset to beat Canada 10-8 and dent their hopes of making the last four.

Australia had previously lost four of their round-robin matches by just one point, but that heartache was nowhere to be seen after they snapped their losing streak in style and defeated their coach, Canada's PyeongChang 2018 gold medallist John Morris.

It topped a remarkable day for the pair who were granted a reprieve after Gill returned a positive COVID-19 test result in the morning.

That came just in time to make their first match of the day. You can find the full match reports of their games here.

Australia finished their campaign with a 2-7 record with Gill, who said, "All we wanted to do is finish our campaign and so grateful that we're able to do it with a couple of wins.

"You know, we don't have a dedicated curling rink, so if that can happen as well from our time here then that would be absolutely huge for the sport in Australia."

Norway and Britain are through to the semi-finals despite Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds losing 6-2 to the Norwegian pair in the evening session.

Having won their must-win clash with Sweden earlier in the day, Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten played a string of perfect ends to get the better of the reigning world champions and book their place in the last four.

MORE: Couples in the house: two husband-and-wife teams talk curling together

(2022 Getty Images)

Beijing 2022 mixed doubles curling semi-finals: Destiny in Canada's hands

It was a disappointing day for world silver medallists who Sweden who later went down to Italy to finish the round robin with a 5-4 overall record.

They must now await the outcome of Canada's meeting with Italy on Monday morning to find out who takes the last place in the final four.

Should Rachel Homan and Morris win, they will make the semi-finals. If, however, Canada fail to end Italy's unbeaten record then they will finish alongside Sweden on 5-4 with the outcomes of other matches and potentially the Draw Shot Challenge (DSC) determining the semi-final line-up.

Here are the possible scenarios:

Should Canada lose, Switzerland beat Norway and the United States beat Great Britain then Sweden will go through.

If, however, Canada lose, Switzerland beat Norway and Great Britain win, then the DSC will be used to determine between Sweden, Norway and Canada who is in and who finishes third and fourth.

If Norway beat Switzerland and Canada lose, regardless of the outcomes of either game, Sweden will progress through.

The DSC will be also be required if Norway, Canada and Great Britain win to determine second, third and fourth place.

The DSC is the average distance of all the individual Last Stone Draws (LSD), which were delivered by a team during the round robin. The two least favourable results are eliminated before calculating the average distance. The team with the lesser DSC receives the higher ranking.

As it stands People’s Republic of China sit in first with Great Britain in second and Sweden third. Canada are currently ranked ninth in the table.

This table will change again after all teams complete their final matches.

(2022 Getty Images)

Curling at Beijing 2022 Olympics Day 5 results in full:

  • Czech Republic 10-8 United States of America
  • Great Britain 6-5 People's Republic of China
  • Norway 6-2 Sweden
  • Australia 9-6 Switzerland
  • Italy 8-4 People's Republic of China
  • Canada 7-5 Czech Republic
  • Australia 10-8 Canada
  • Italy 12-8 Sweden
  • Switzerland 6-5 United States of America
  • Norway 6-2 Great Britain

You can find the round robin standings after today's action here.

Schedule: Curling at Beijing 2022 Olympics: Day 6

Here is the schedule for Monday 7 February.

The last round robin fixtures will take place in the morning before the top four qualifying teams return to the Ice Cube for the semi-finals.

All times listed are CST (Chinese Standard Time).

  • 09:05 Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 13 - Switzerland v Norway
  • 09:05 Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 13 - Canada v Italy
  • 09:05 Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 13 - United States of America v Great Britain
  • 09:05 Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 13 - Czech Republic v People's Republic of China
  • 20:05 Mixed Doubles Semi-final Sheet A - TBC v TBC
  • 20:05 Mixed Doubles Semi-final Sheet C - Italy v TBC
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