Eve Muirhead and Stefania Constantini make winning starts at Mixed Doubles Worlds
The Olympic champions from Beijing 2022 had comfortable opening victories in Geneva, with Constantini alongside new partner Sebastiano Arman.
Curling
Eve Muirhead is bidding for a rare quadruple at the 2022 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in Geneva.
The Scot skipped Great Britain's women to gold at Beijing 2022 having previously won world and European titles.
Only Oskar Eriksson, who won men's gold as part of Niklas Edin's Sweden rink in February, has clinched those three as well as the mixed doubles world crown.
On her competition debut, Muirhead is alongside Olympic silver medallist Bobby Lammie - Bruce Mouat's second in Beijing - and the pair made a strong start on Saturday (23 April) by beating English siblings Anna and Ben Fowler 8-3.
Muirhead and Lammie will be hoping to keep the trophy in Scottish hands after Mouat and Jen Dodds - who played second for Muirhead in Beijing - took the title last year.
This will be the 32-year-old's last event of the season, but Lammie will be returning to Canada for the Champions Cup after Team Mouat won the recent Players' Championship in Toronto.
Speaking to British Curling ahead of the tournament, Muirhead said, "It has been busy since the Olympics, a complete whirlwind without really having a chance to stop, so events like the Players' Championship last week and the Mixed Doubles this week bring a bit of a normality. It’s a time to step back and breathe and do what I love doing, which is the competing side of it.
"I think Bobby and I have had a good focus on the Mixed Doubles event leading into it. We had several practices before we left for Canada, along with Greg Drummond, the Mixed Doubles coach, so I feel we’re in a good place
"It’s not a discipline that we haven’t done before and I’m sure both of our experience will help us through that. I enjoy playing with Bobby a lot. He’s a great guy and he’s also a great player and we get on well.
"We know when we step on the ice that we’re out there to win and there’s a lot of focus, but we also have a good laugh as well."
There are two groups of 10 teams in Geneva with Scotland in Group B where Canada - represented by Beijing Olympians Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant - opened up with a 9-3 win over Germany.
PyeongChang 2018 gold medallist Matt Hamilton is playing with sister Becca for the United States, and they started their campaign with a 9-6 victory over Czech Republic.
Elsewhere, Spain defeat Turkey 9-2 and Hungary got the better of Australian Olympians Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt 7-5.
Stefania Constantini bidding to add world title to Olympic gold with new partner
Stefania Constantini made the perfect start in Geneva despite a late change of partner.
The gold medallist from Beijing 2022 is alongside Sebastiano Arman after Amos Mosaner was ruled out just before the event with a thigh muscle injury.
Arman and Mosaner were both in Italy's men's rink which finished ninth in the Chinese capital.
But the new pairing quickly got down to business, beating Japan's Matsumara Chiaki and Tanida Yasumasa 10-3 with a score of four in the fifth end propelling them to victory.
Constantini said on the eve of the tournament that, while she was disappointed by Mosaner's absence, Arman will be a good replacement.
She told Corriere delle Alpi, "Unfortunately Amos had this problem, but I'm happy to play with Sebastiano because he's strong. It will be our debut in doubles together so we are both curious to see how it will go.
The 23-year-old highlighted Switzerland and Sweden as Italy's main rivals in Group A and both registered opening victories.
Switzerland's Beijing skip Alina Paetz and Sven Michel, who were world champions back in 2011, dispatched Estonia 9-2 with an end to spare.
Meanwhile, Sweden's brother-sister pair of Isabella and Beijing 2022 gold medallist Rasmus Wrana also got off to a successful start with a 7-4 triumph over Norway.
Also in Group A, Korea beat New Zealand 9-4 and Denmark scored a 7-5 win over Finland.
All 10 teams in Group A play again later on Saturday with Sweden and Switzerland going head-to-head in the pick of the matches while Italy face New Zealand.
At the end of the round-robin, only the group winners will progress automatically to Friday's semi-finals.
Earlier on Friday, the runners-up in each group with face the third-placed teams in the other group. The winners of those qualification games will make the semis with the medal matches taking place on Saturday.
World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship schedule (all time CEST, GMT+2):
Saturday 23 April
10:00 - Session 1: ITA 10-3 JPN; NOR 4-7 SWE; FIN 5-7 DEN; SWI 9-2 EST; NZL 4-9 KOR
14:00 - Session 2: CZE 6-9 USA; GER 3-9 CAN; HUN 7-5 AUS; ESP 9-2 TUR; ENG 3-8 SCO
18:00 - Session 3: SWE v SUI; JPN v EST; NZL v ITA; KOR v DEN; NOR v FIN
Sunday 24 April
10:00 - Session 4: CAN v ESP; USA v TUR; ENG v CZE; SCO v AUS; GER v HUN
14:00 - Session 5: DEN v NOR; ITA v KOR: JPN v SUI; FIN v NZL; SWE v EST
18:00 - Session 6: AUS v GER; CZE v SCO; USA v ESP; HUN v ENG; CAN v TUR
Monday 25 April
10:00 - Session 7: EST v NZL; FIN v SUI; KOR v SWE; DEN v ITA; JPN v NOR
14:00 - Session 8: TUR v ENG; HUN v ESP; SCO v CAN; AUS v CZE; USA v GER
18:00 - Session 9: FIN v SWE; NZL v JPN; ITA v EST; NOR v KOR; SUI v DEN
Tuesday 26 April
10:00 - Session 10: HUN v CAN; ENG v USA; CZE v TUR; GER v SCO; ESP v AUS
14:00 - Session 11: NZL v DEN; SWE v ITA; SUI v NOR; EST v FIN; KOR v JPN
18:00 - Session 12: ENG v AUS; CAN v CZE; ESP v GER; TUR v HUN; SCO v USA
Wednesday 27 April
10:00 - Session 13: NOR v EST; KOR v FIN; DEN v JPN; NZL v SWE; ITA v SUI
14:00 - Session 14: GER v TUR; SCO v HUN; AUS v USA; ENG v CAN; CZE v ESP
18:00 - Session 15: JPN v FIN; SUI v NZL; EST v KOR; ITA v NOR; DEN v SWE
Thursday 28 April
10:00 - Session 16: USA v HUN; ESP v ENG; TUR v SCO; CZE v GER; AUS v CAN
14:00 - Session 17: SUI v KOR; EST v DEN; NOR v NZL; SWE v JPN; FIN v ITA
18:00 - Session 18: ESP v SCO; TUR v AUS; GER v ENG; CAN v USA; HUN v CZE
Friday 29 April
09:00 - Qualification Game A2 v B3 and Relegation Games
12:30 - Qualification Game B2 v A3
16:00 - Semi-final B1 v A2/B3
19:30 - Semi-final A1 v B2/A3
Saturday 30 April
10:00 - Bronze Medal Game
14:00 - Gold Medal Game