World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships 2022: Italian Olympic champ Stefania Constantini fails to qualify for play-offs
Draw stone challenge sends Switzerland, Sweden and Norway through from Group A while Germany pipped the United States to the final play-off spot in Group B.
Curling
Six teams have now safely booked their passage to the play-offs at the 2022 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in Geneva.
But notably missing from that list are Italy, featuring Tokyo 2020 mixed doubles champion Stefania Constantini, who just missed the cut.
At the start of the day's action four teams were in still in contention for the next tournament phase in Group A, piling the pressure of the final round-robin match-ups.
After all four pairs picked up wins reigning Olympic champions Italy fell out of the race finishing with six wins and three losses overall, while the draw stone challenge was used to determine the places of Switzerland, Sweden and Norway who each finished on seven wins and two losses.
Having finished top, Switzerland progress straight through to the semi-finals leaving Sweden in second and Norway in third to battle it out in the play-offs.
In Group B, Germany's Pia-Lisa Scholl and Klaudius Harsch complete the play-offs picture after they defeated England 7-3 while their qualification rivals, United States' Becca and Matt Hamilton, lost to Canada.
Beijing Olympians Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman picked up form throughout the encounter to stop their northern American counterparts from advancing further into the competition.
Canada, leading 4-3 at the close of the fifth end, extended the score-line out to 7-3 after Peterman played a wide angle raise take-out that was so beautifully done, it has been dubbed 'shot of the week' so far.
2018 PyeongChang gold medallist Matt and sister Becca responded in the seventh with a score of two to reduce the deficit to 7-5, but in the eighth end, they ran out of stones falling 8-5.
Indomitable Scotland took their eighth consecutive win to qualify in first and so, take up the other remaining semi-final spot while Canada, who also qualified yesterday, finish in second and so proceed to the play-offs.
World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships 2022: Relegation field set
In addition to play-off action there will also be relegation action on Friday (April 29).
The two teams that finished bottom of the standings after the round robin matches are automatically relegated to the World Mixed Doubles Qualification Event in the following season.
From Group A this will be New Zealand and from Group B, Turkey.
There will also be relegation games between the teams that finished eighth and ninth in the standings respectively, where the losers of these games will also be relegated to the qualification event in the following season.
As the eighth place finisher in Group A, Korea will meet Spain, who ended up in ninth in Group B, and Group A's Finland will meet England in the must-win game.
World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship updated schedule (all time CEST, GMT+2):
Friday 29 April
Qualification Game
09:00 - Sweden v Germany
Relegation Games
09:00 - Spain v Korea
09:00 - Finland v England
Qualification Game
12:30 - Canada v Norway
Semi-finals
16:00 - Scotland v Sweden/Germany
19:30 - Switzerland v Canada/Norway
Saturday 30 April
10:00 - Bronze Medal Game
14:00 - Gold Medal Game