China loses to South Korea in PyeongChang Games women's curling

PYEONGCHANG -- China lost to South Korea 12-5 on Sunday afternoon in a round robin session of women's curling at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The Chinese players, apparently not in their best form, opened with a 0-3 loss.

With the hammer, China took back one point in the second end, but lost three more in the third to South Korea that was gaining a momentum.

The fifth end saw China lose four more points, which almost decided the game, despite the struggling efforts on the Chinese side to turn the tide in later part of the match.

"Their start wasn't good today. We made some mistakes in the first end, and they had some good chances to really put some pressure on us, but they didn't execute their shots," said South Korea coach Peter James Gallant.

"Once they got behind, they had to take some chances, and it's getting harder and harder (for them)," he added.

He said that the easy win was also out of his expectation. "We've played them many times. We know how good they are, and we knew we had to play very well to beat them. We got off to a good start. That just made it simpler for us today," he said.

China coach Tan Weidong said that South Korea was in good form and has been playing better and better.

"We lost six points after the first three ends, and after that, it was difficult to level the score. We tried all our strategies and attacking modes, but they managed to neutralize our attacks anyway," said Tan.

He said that the loss made it difficult but not impossible for China to enter the semifinals. "We won't think too much of the results. We will just try our best in the next three matches," he said.

Also on Sunday afternoon, Sweden edged Britain 8-6, and Canada beat Switzerland 10-8.

Ten teams are competing in the women's curling tournament, with the top four finishers from the round-robin to qualify for the semifinals.

Sweden tops the standings with five straight wins, followed by Japan and South Korea on four wins and one loss.