The Great Britain mixed doubles wheelchair curlers have suffered a setback in their bid to reach the Winter Paralympic semi-finals after a 10-5 defeat to unbeaten China.
Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean will need to win their final round-robin game against hosts Italy on Monday (13:35 GMT) to have any chance of reaching the last four.
The GB pair came into Sunday’s match in Cortina full of confidence on the back of three consecutive wins.
And after a dream start, which saw them lead the Chinese 3-0 after the opening end and 5-1 after three of the eight ends, they were dreaming of a famous victory.
But China roared back, cutting the lead to 5-3 in the fourth end before taking a steal of two in the fifth end where GB had both the powerplay and the hammer and then showing their skill to take three in the next where GB again had the advantage of the last stone.
Butterfield and Kean were left chasing the game and slipped further behind in the sixth end and when China scored a further two in the penultimate end, they conceded with one end to play.
Earlier, the mixed wheelchair curling team suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to 2022 Winter Paralympic bronze medallists Canada in their third round-robin match
The team of Karen Aspey, Austin McKenzie, Stewart Pimblett and Hugh Nibloe led 4-2 going into the final end but failed to execute their last stones and Canada, who had the last-stone advantage, picked up the three they needed to secure victory.
