Olympics-Curling-Champions Sweden all but out of medal contention after poor campaign

By Aadi Nair

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Olympic men's curling champions Sweden suffered a crushing blow on Monday, with their title defence on the brink of ending after a 7-3 defeat to Germany.

The Niklas Edin-led Swedish rink have just one win in six games at the Winter Olympics and will fail to qualify for the semi-finals, barring an extraordinary set of circumstances.

"We haven't played terrible, it's just too many half shots and a few guesses that are not good enough and a few calls that maybe are not the best calls and a few wrong sides of the inches and all that combined just created too many losses," Edin said.

World champions Britain, who were also among the pre-tournament favourites, suffered a surprise 7-6 defeat to Norway - a second consecutive loss that dropped Bruce Mouat's team to fifth in the standings.

Britain need victories in their final two matches against top-four rivals Canada and the United States to guarantee their semi-final spot, though one victory could still prove sufficient.

Canada strengthened their position with an emphatic 8-2 victory over the Czech Republic, securing their fifth win of the round-robin stage to maintain second place behind unbeaten Switzerland.

"We're rolling along. We're feeling good. We're getting more comfortable every game, and we're trending in the right direction," Canada's Marc Kennedy said.

Hosts Italy suffered a heavy 11-4 loss to China, which dropped them into seventh place.

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