With Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, and Alexander Zhukov, President of the Russian Olympic Committee, watching on, Russia beat Czech Republic 11-3 before claiming a 7-6 extra-end victory against previously undefeated Denmark.

"It was great with all the people cheering for us today, we really appreciated that,” said Victoria Moiseeva of Russia, who partnered Sochi 2014 Olympian Peter Dron.

“We gained confidence and played our best.

“We are focusing on one game at a time, but of course, the goal is to qualify for the quarter-finals and we are hoping for a medal."

The US secured their second win of the Championship as 2012 Youth Olympians Korey Dropkin and Sarah Anderson won 8-5 against Japan, and followed it up with an 8-2 success against Turkey.

Elsewhere, Slovakia picked up their first victory by beating Turkey 11-10, the highest scoring game of the tournament so far, before losing 12-1 against Japan.

Denmark preceded their loss to Russia with an 8-2 win against Australia, while Switzerland beat France 9-4 before scoring six points in the opening end of their match against Australia, the highest number of points from an end in mixed doubles, en route to an 8-6 triumph.

Meanwhile, Czech Republic bounced back from their defeat to Russia to record their first win, 7-3 against France.

As for Group C, Canada, South Korea and Spain all won their two matches to maintain 100 per cent records.

Canada defeated England 11-3 to continue their good form from the opening day of play, and then subjected Estonia to their first loss of the Championship as Kalynn Park and Charley Thomas won 9-2.

South Korea beat Belarus 7-1, and England 8-6, while last year’s bronze medallists Spain defeated Romania 8-4 and came from 5-0 down after only one end in their game against Scotland to win 10-9 with a single point in the eighth end.

“The first end was pretty bad for us, we couldn't find our draw weight,” said Spain’s Irantzu Vez Garcia.

“But then we decided to just have fun and try and play better.

“That really worked for us as we won in the end.”

Hungary’s Dorottya Palancsa and Zsolt Kiss, the 2013 World Mixed Doubles champions, picked up their first win of the Championship as they defeated Scotland 8-5, and went on to comfortably get the better of Romania in an emphatic 10-1 win.

Prior to their loss against Canada, Estonia recorded an 11-2 win against Poland, who later picked up their first win, 6-5 against Belarus.  

Group B only featured one session on the day, which saw Sweden and Norway keep up their unbeaten records with wins against Austria, 6-4, and Finland, 9-3, respectively.

New Zealand and Brazil were tied 8-8 going into a final end and it was the former who secured their first victory of the Championship with two points to win 10-8.

Italy and Latvia meanwhile picked up their second wins of the Championship, with Italy needing an extra end to overcome China 7-6, and Latvia beating Slovenia 9-5.

The round-robin action is due to continue here tomorrow.


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