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Britain's curlers face play-off

Britain's David Ryding was in action in the Giant Slalom © Getty Images

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Great Britain's men's curling team will play off against Sweden for a place in the semi-finals while the women have exited after a disappointing loss on Tuesday.

The men's 9-5 defeat by Norway means they will have to get past Sweden to set up a daunting final-four encounter with the unbeaten host nation, who beat the Brits in the round robin phase. Sweden also beat David Murdoch's men in the first match of the tournament.

Team GB took an early 3-2 lead after the second end but the sheet belonged to the Norwegians from that point onwards and Murdoch conceded defeat after eight ends, setting up the sudden death qualifier with the Swedes.

"We just have to see it as another game," said Murdoch. "At least we are not out of it, that's the main thing. So tomorrow we play Sweden and hopefully win that."

Great Britain's women curlers' 6-5 defeat to Canada brought their Olympic campaign to an end. In their final round robin match Eve Muirhead's side needed to win and hope other results went their way to qualify for the semi-finals.

Trailing 5-2 with two ends remaining, they drew level to take Canada to an extra end, but Switzerland's 4-2 victory over Germany meant that even with a win Britain would not progress through to the semi-finals.

"It would have been fantastic to end on a high against Canada today but it didn't come off, although we played pretty well at times," Muirhead said. "Hopefully for myself there will be many more opportunities to come. I have personally had the experience of a lifetime out here, it could be the only one but hopefully there will be more."

Britain's medal hopefuls in the women's bobsleigh, Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke, have a lot of work to do on Wednesday after their first two runs left them in in 10th place, 1.38 seconds behind the Canadian leaders. They will need to make up one second over the second two runs to reach the German pair who currently occupy third place.

Paula Walker and Kelly Thomas were also in action, placing 11th at the halfway mark after a ninth-best 53.58 seconds in their second run.

Elsewhere, there were five gold medals won on Day 12, including one for the host nation that should lift spirits heading into the final stretch.

In the men's giant slalom Switzerland's Carlo Janka led from the start and took the gold with a combined run of 2:37.83 ahead of Norwegian pair Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Lund Svindal. Triple American medallist Bode Miller, who already has a gold, silver and bronze medal from the Games, failed to place after missing a gate on the first run.

Britain's Andrew Noble finished 36th, ahead of Ed Drake in 37th and 47th-placed David Ryding. "There's a healthy competition between the British skiers," said Noble. "We're friends, we cheer each other on and we're proud of each other."

There was massive drama as an Olympic record fell in the men's 10,000m speed skating event. Korean Lee Seung-Hoon laid down a scorching 12:58.55 to better Dutchman Jochem Uytdehaage's mark of 12:58.92 from Salt Lake City eight years ago. It appeared the record was headed back to the Netherlands when hot favourite Sven Kramer clocked an incredible 12:54.50, but he was disqualified for crossing over a lane illegally.

Kramer later blamed his coach for the error, after he had instructed the skater to switch the wrong side mid-race by mistake. Ivan Skobrev of Russia grabbed silver more than three seconds behind Lee, while bronze went to the Dutch via Bob de Jong a further five seconds back.

In the ladies' ski cross, Canada's tilt at 'Owning the Podium' received a boost as Ashleigh McIvor crossed first in the final for gold. Norway's fantastic Olympics continued with a silver for Hedda Berntsen while Marion Josserand nabbed bronze for France. Britain's Sarah Sauvey finished 34th and missed out on qualification.

Russia's quartet of Svetlana Sleptsova, Anna Bogaliy-Titovets, Olga Medvedtseva and Olga Zaitseva dominated the 4x6km biathlon relay, with the first and third competitors completing penalty-free runs, while France edged Germany at the line for silver.

In the day's other team event, Austria took gold in the nordic combined 4x5km CC, which involves ski-jumping and racing. The Austrans had the third-best jump score, handing a 34-second headstart to the United States team, but the Europeans raced in with the only sub-49 minute time to gain a five-second winning margin. Germany's team had the second best racing time but their lesser jumping score put them in bronze medal position.

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