Olympics-Curling-Italy beat Britain to continue strong start at Winter Games

By Aadi Nair

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Joel Retornaz's Italy beat Britain 9-7 on Friday to continue their winning start at the Winter Olympics with a victory over yet another favourite in the men's curling competition boosting hopes of a medal on home ice.

In their opening match Italy beat Olympic champions Sweden, who also lost to Britain on Thursday.

World champions Britain began on a disastrous note as skip Bruce Mouat attempted a complicated takeout but ended up clearing out a couple of his own team's stones, giving Italy a steal of four points in the first end.

A frustrated Mouat kicked out at a stone and then got back to work, nailing a double takeout in the fourth end to reduce the deficit before another stolen point left the score at 5-4 to Italy at the halfway mark.

With momentum slowly shifting towards the top-ranked British side after they levelled at 7-7 in the penultimate end, Retornaz sealed two points with the final stone to secure the win.

"It was a very good curling game. It's good for us, it's good for the fans, and those are the games you want to be in," Retornaz said.

"Something changes in the head because you have those four points (in the first end), but that's what you have to fight also. You have to fight your mindset because you cannot rely on those four points in the first end out of ten. The game is too long.

"You've still got to be very focused and try to play end after end. You're playing the number one team in the world, so you know they're going to come back."

Brad Jacobs' Canada also picked up a comfortable 6-3 win over Danny Casper's United States, while Yannick Schwaller-led Switzerland beat the Czech Republic 7-3.

Norway defeated China 8-6 in a hard-fought encounter which went into an extra end.

Teams play nine matches in the round-robin stage, which continues on Friday. The top four advance to the semi-finals next week.