[Lord Snooty]

I watched a bit of the snowboard cross this morning. Love it.
Had to leave for work before the final though.

---

So Jacobellis finally won it then. Took here a few years to get it.

[ritchiebaby]

One day catch-up for the curling teams as both Men's and Women's competitions get underway. The GB Men started their campaign with a strong 7-5 win against Italy, where Bruce Mouat got revenge of sorts over Amos Mosaner, Gold Medallist in the Mixed Doubles. After 6 ends GB stood 1 down, but won 3 of the last 4 ends to win. The GB Women had a mixed game against World Champions Switzerland and a bout of over-sweeping led to a 5-6 defeat after an extra end. Their 2nd game this afternoon was totally different with everyone playing at the top of their game, which resulted in a convincing 8-2 win after only 7 ends over reigning Olympic Champions Sweden.

Tomorrow has the Men playing United States and Norway and the Women playing Korea.

It's a two day catch-up for everything else, starting with Farrell Treacy reaching the Final of the 1500m Short Track Speed Skating and finishing 9th. As is normal for chaotic Short Track, his appearance in the Final was due to various penalties dished out to other competitors in the Semi-final, where he was in a challenging position at the time.

Charlie Guest was in a creditable 15th position in the Women's Slalom in Alpine Skiing after the 1st run, but slipped to 21st after the 2nd run. Alex Tilley did not finish the 1st run.

GB Medal Hope Charlotte Bankes was eliminated in the 4th Quarter-final of the Women's Snowboard Cross and Kathryn Thomson failed to qualify in the Women's 1000m Heats of the Short Track Speed Skating.

Earlier today Matt Weston qualified for Heat 3 tomorrow in 13th place in Men's Skeleton, along with Marcus Wyatt in 17th position. The top 20 after Heat 3 progress to Heat 4 later in the day. Neither are likely to medal, being over 2 seconds down on the leader, which is a huge margin in this event.

Huw Nightingale was eliminated at the Eighth-final stage of the Men's Snowboard Cross.

Laura Deas and Brogan Crowley take part in Heat 1 of the Women's Skeleton at 01.30 tomorrow and in Heat 2 at at 03.00. The final 2 Heats are at lunchtime on Saturday.

[ritchiebaby]

Once again curling comes first, but don't tell my wife! GB Men started the day with a 7-9 defeat against the defending Olympic Champions, United States. The team admitted readily that they hadn't played well and ran out of stones in the last end. However thay were back on form in the late game, defeating Norway 8-3 after just 7 ends, with everyone playing better, especially the 3rd and 4th players. The Men have a day off tomorrow and are due to play China and Denmark on Sunday.

The GB Women had another setback against Korea, losing 7-9, mainly due to the loss of 4 shots in the 9th end to leave themselves an impossible task. The Women play United States tomorrow and Denmark on Sunday.

It looks like it's curtains for GB in the Women's Skeleton, with Laura Deas in 21st place and Brogan Crowley in 22nd after Heat 2, with Heat 3 taking place at 12.20. Only the top 20 qualify for Heat 4 at 13.55 so an improvement is needed for that.

The Men's 15km Cross-country Skiing saw GB's entrants finish well down the field with Andrew Musgrave in 46th place and Andrew Young in 51st.

Both Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt got through to Heat 4 of the Men's Skeleton, finishing in 15th and 16th positions respectively.

Huw Nightingale and Charlotte Bankes represent GB in Heat 4 of the Mixed Team Snowboard Cross tomorrow at 02.00.

Cornelius Kersten is in the 2nd pairing of the Man's 500m Short track Speed Skating at 08.53 and Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson take the ice at 11.00 in the Ice Dance competition. They are skating 17th in the draw.

Oh, and the words "Russian" and "doping" once again feature in the headlines.

[ritchiebaby]

My wife has graciously informed me that curling does not come first so ...........

Huw Nightingale and Charlotte Bankes made it through to the Small Final in the Mixed Team Snowboard Cross event and finished a creditable 6th.

Cornelius Kersten was awarded 25th place in the final reckoning of the Men's 500m Short Track Speed Skating.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson finished in 10th place after the Rhythm Dance and have comfortably qualified for the Free Dance at 01.15 on Monday.

Brogan Crowley was eliminated after Heat 3 in the Women's Skeleton, finishing in 22nd place, but Laura Deas scraped into Heat 4 in 20th place, and eventually finished another place higher in 19th.

Now for the sole GB curling game, the Women sailed into a 4-0 lead against United States and controlled the reat of the game, United States conceding after the 9th end, giving GB a 10-5 win.

Tomorrow has more curling for both the Men and Women, plus Kirsty Muir, starting 18th, and Katie Summerhayes, starting 22nd, in the Women's Freeski Slopestyle competition from 02.00. The top 12 athletes will progress to the Final on Monday from 01.30.

[ritchiebaby]

Just watched almost 6 hours of curling on the BBC iPlayer and am glad to report that GB Men won twice, against China by 7-6 and against Denmark by 8-2 with 2 ends to play. The game against China lokks very tight according to the score, but in reality GB were in total control, scoring only 2 ends (a 4 and a 3) and were very patient with their game plan, blanking 3 successive ends to keep last stone. Bruce Mouat scored a superb 98% for the whole game. They play Switzerland at 06.05 tomorrow and are a solid 2nd in the standings with 4 wins behind Sweden on 5 wins and ahead of Canada, ROC, Switzerland and United States on 3 wins.

The GB Women had a fairly straightforward win against Denmark and produced a strong finish to post a 7-2 win. They play Canada in their next game at 12.05 tomorrow and will look to keep improving on their current 3 wins, along with Japan, Sweden and United States, but well behind Switzerland on 5 wins.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson are competing in the Free Dance at 01.15.

Katie Ormerod appears in the Snowboard Big Air Qualification at 01.30, starting 27th of 30 entrants. The top 12 will progress to the Final on Tuesday.

Kirsty Muir and Katie Summerhayes are off in the postponed Freeski Slopestyle Qualifications at 02.00, with again the top 12 competing in the Final on Tuesday.

Brad Hall and Nick Gleeson are off in 8th in Heat 1, and will contest Heat 2 later, of the Two-man Bob, starting at 12.05 with Heats 3 and 4 on Tuesday.

After 12 days we've had 3 hard-luck stories, but still no medals. My forecast of 9 medals flew out of the window a few days ago. In fact, the GB media personnel have already started the blame game in the Skeleton. No comment from me on the reasons for failure, but I wish the pundits would appreciate that hundreds of other athletes and support staff are trying just as hard as ours.

[ritchiebaby]

Another excellent performance from Lilah and Lewis meant they retained their 10th place after the Free Dance.

Unfortunately, Katie O failed to qualify in the Snowboard Big Air event, finishing in 25th position.

Kirsty and Katie S both qualified for the Freeski Slopestyle Final, Kirsty in 6th and Katie in 10th. The Final consists of 3 runs tomorrow starting at 01.30.

Brad and Nick lie in 11th position after Heat 2 in the 2-man Bob. The top 20 after Heat 3 at 12.15 tomorrow go again in the Final Heat at 13.15 to decide the final standings.

In Curling, the GB Men's Team won 6-5 against Switzerland with a last-stone open take-out to consolidate their 2nd position. Sweden have already qualified as none of the teams on 3 wins can overtake them. GB's next game is against Sweden at 12.05 tomorrow.

The Women's Team were farting against thunder (as it were) with Canada skip Jennifer Jones in scintillating form. Eve Muirhead, no matter how hard she tried, could not find a way to keep Jones at bay. GB played played reasonably well, but sometimes there's little you can do to stay close enough to threaten. The final score of 3-7 leaves GB on 3 wins and outside the top 4. Switzerland have 5 wins. Japan, Sweden and United States have 4 wins. GB really need to win 2 of their last 3 games, starting with Japan at 06.05 tomorrow.

Tomorrow also sees the first appearance of Natasha McKay in the Women's Figure Skating Short Programme from 10.00 and skating 8th. The top 24 will qualify for the Free Programme on Thursday. She will be skating against the wee Russian lassie who, despite testing positive in December, was allowed to take part and, despite testing positive after her winning in the team event, is allowed to continue in this discipline.  The big punishment will be that, if she gains a medal, there will be no medal ceremony.   

Also appearing for the first time tomorrow is Lloyd Wallace in the Men's Freestyle Aerials at 11.00 with a second run at 11.45.and hopefully the Finals on Wednesday.

James Woods is supposed to compete in the re-scheduled Freeski Slopestyle Qualifiers, apparently at some future date, bur he has been suffering from extreme back pain, so he might be a DNS (or compete full of legal drugs).

[ritchiebaby]

A good start to the day in the Women's Freeski Slopestyle Final from Kirsty Muir, who finished 8th, and Katie Summerhayes, who finished 9th. Both will be pleased with their performances, but disappointed that they couldn't finish closer to the medal positions. In the Men's equivalent, James Woods did not start, succumbing to his back problems.

In the Women's Curling, GB demolished Japan 10-4, greatly helped by scoring 3 shots in each of the 1st and 3rd ends, which finished the game as a contest. There are now probably 7 teams involved in the race for the 4 qualifying places and, with 2 games still to play, there is everything to play for. Tomorrow's game is against China at 01.05.

Lloyd Wallace failed to qualify for the Men's Freestyle Aerials, despite an excellent first run, and finished in 15th place.

Natasha McKay had a disappointing Short Programme in the Women's Figure Skating including a fall and finished 28th.

Brad Hall and Nick Gleeson spectacularly crashed out of the 2-man Bob in Heat 3, but they both walked away unhurt. Amazingly they went back out again in Heat 4 and posted a pretty decent time to eventually finish 11th.

In the Men's Curling GB had an impressive 7-6 win over Sweden to ensure a Semi-final place. Again the score doesn't tell the whole story, as GB got off to a great start and, despite the best efforts of Niklas Edin, GB were always in control of the game. They now take on ROC in tomorrow's game at 06.05.

Tomorrow sees the appearance of Dave Ryding, probably the last Great British hope for an individual medal. He is 13th away in the Men's Slalom at 02.15, followed much later by Billy Major who is 32nd to ski.

And don't forget the Cross-country Skiing Team Sprint event where GB (James Clugnet and Andrew Young) appear in Semi-final 1 at 08.15 (or 09.00 per the BBC). The first 2 in each of the 2 Semi-finals plus the 6 fastest losers will qualify for the Final later on.

Kathryn Thomson skates in Quarter-final 6 of the Women's 1500m Short Track at 11.30 tomorrow, where the best 3 in each race and the 3 fastest 4th place finishers progress to the Semi-finals later.

[ritchiebaby]

Continuing GB's failure to gain a medal so far, Dave Ryding finished 13th, only 1.48 seconds down, in the Men's Slalom. True to his word, he skied an aggressive race, but a mistake in the 1st run put paid to his chances. Billy Major recorded a Did Not Finish.

James Clugnet and Andrew Young finished a distant 10th in the 1st Semi-final of the Men's Cross Country Team Relay and failed to qualify for the Final.

Kathryn Thomson withdrew from the Women's Speed Skating 1500m Quarter-finals "for medical reasons following tests".

The GB Women curlers had a chastening 4-8 defeat at the hands of China this morning. They were 4-4 after 8 ends, but lost 3 shots in the 9th end to leave themselves far too much to do in the last end. Kirsty then Eve drew the shot 4 times out of 4 in that 9th end, but China kept getting rid of the shot stone.

Sweden and Switzerland have already qualified for the Semi-finals and GB can join them after a win against ROC tomorrow, but ONLY IF Canada and Korea lose their final games. Japan can be drawn into the dogfight if they lose their game and there is a scenario where either GB or Japan can qualify due to their Draw Shot Challenge results if either Canada or Korea lose. It's a must win game for GB and even if they do they could still lose out. I've got everything (well, most things) crossed for Eve and her team.

The GB Men did much better, eventually defeating ROC with a last stone take-out to win 7-6. They repeated their trick of scoring big at the start, then successfully defending the lead. They now play Canada tomorrow in their final round-robin game and I'm sure would like to keep their winning run going. At the top, GB, Sweden and Canada are sure of Semi-final places and United States must be favourites to join them, although they might be involved in a 3-way tie with China and ROC.

We have 2 athletes in the Freeski Halfpipe event - Zoe Atkins is 5th away in the Women's competition at 01.30 and Gus Kenworthy 6th away for the men at 04.30. The top 12 in each will progress to the Finals - Friday for the Women and Saturday for the Men.

Ellia Smeding will be in the outside lane in the 2nd pairing for the Women's 1000m at 08.30 tomorrow in the Speed Skating Oval.

[ritchiebaby]

The GB Man curlers opened today's action with an emphatic 5-2 win over Canada to complete their round-robin games in top spot with 8 wins. Sweden finished 2nd with 7 wins, followed by Canada and United States on 5 wins. This means that the Men's Semi-finals are GB v Uniited States and Sweden v Canada at 12.05 today.

One of the 4 possibilities out of 16 (according to the BBC) came true today for the GB Women, meaning that they have qualified for the Semi-finals tomorrow at . GB won a tight game against ROC courtesy of 4 shots in the 9th end to make the final score 9-4. Thanks to Sweden beating Korea in their final game, GB moved up to 3rd in the table with 5 wins, behind Switzerland on 8 wins and Sweden on 7 wins and just ahead of Japan, also on 5 wins, by a baw-hair (to use the Scots vernacular) in the Draw Shot Challenge. Canada also had 5 wins and finished a further 5cms behind. The Semi-finals to morrow at 12.05 are GB v Sweden and Switzerland v Japan.

That's another 2 4th finishes guaranteed, but more importantly definite medal chances for an under-performing GB Team.

Another 4th place was earned by Zoe Atkins earlier in the Women's Freeski Halfpipe event, comfortably qualifying for the Final 2 runs tomorrow at 01.30. In the Men's event Gus Kenworthy also qualified for his Final on Saturday at 01.30, albeit in 12th position. However they both start anew and 1 extra-special performance could bring it's due rewards.

In the Women's 1000m Speed Skating Qualification, Ellia Smeding finished in 23rd position.

[ritchiebaby]

I've just watched a controlled display of shot-making from the GB Men curlers to fashion a victory by 8-4 over United States and a mouthy John Shuster. GB ignored his comments and kept him at bay. Shuster is a brilliant curler but he loves making the big shots and it sometimes, like today, can go against him. And at last GB are going to get a medal - you can depend on the curlers to deliver.

In the other Semi-final, Sweden beat Canada 5-3 in another really tight game, making a GB v Sweden Final at 06.05 on Saturday morning. All the earlier games count for nothing, but GB are on a roll. Gold is there for the taking in what promises to be another tense, tight game.

Also coming up is another GB v Sweden game, this time in the Women's Semi-final at 12.05 tomorrow. The other game is Switzerland v Japan at the same time. A couple of guaranteed medals would be a great boost, consideing the disappointments of the past 2 weeks.

Keen viewers can watch Zoe Atkins in her attempt to win a medal in the Freeski Halfpipe Final starting with the first of 3 runs at 01.30 tomorrow. Zoe will be 9th away.

Gus Kenworthy is in the Men's Final at 01.30 on Saturday morning and will be 1st to go. This event also has 3 runs to strut your stuff.

In the Men's Ski Cross Seeding run tomorrow at 03.45, Oliver Davis is due to go in 28th place.

At the reasonable time of 08.30, Cornelius Kersten races in the outside lane in the 10th pairing of the Men's 1000m Speed Skating.

12.00 is the start of the 2-woman Bob and the GB pair of Montell Douglas and Mica McNeill are 18th away.

I will be unavailable all day tomorrow, so I'll not be reporting on any of these events, but hopefully someone will take over to report all the good news.