GB wheelchair curlers hold nerve to beat USA
· Yahoo Sports
A 5-4 victory over the United States kept Great Britain firmly in the hunt for a semi-final spot in the wheelchair curling mixed doubles at the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics.
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After starting the eight-team round-robin phase with two defeats, British pair Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean have registered two consecutive wins to move into a five-way tie for second place in the table.
China - who Great Britain face in their penultimate game - lead the standings with four wins out of four.
The top four nations after seven matches will move through to the semi-finals.
Following on from a 6-5 win against Latvia in Thursday's evening session, Butterfield and Kean were narrow victors in a low-scoring contest against American duo Laura Dwyer and Steve Emt.
Neither side led by more than one point during the first seven ends and the sides were tied at 4-4 going into the final end, in which Great Britain had the hammer - the advantage of throwing the last stone.
Kean produced a fine penultimate stone under pressure to earn the point needed for victory.
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The morning session of wheelchair curling was the only sporting action at the Games on Friday, with the opening ceremony scheduled to take place in Verona from 19:00 GMT.
Great Britain's next match in the mixed doubles is against Japan on Saturday (13:35).
Also on Saturday, Great Britain will play twice on the first day of competition in the four-player wheelchair curling mixed team event.
They will begin against Slovakia (08:35) before facing the United States in their second round-robin match of the day (17:35).