Canada beat Scotland 7-1, while Norway overcame Czech Republic 12-5 as the two teams ended day five of the Championship level at the top of the standings with eight wins and one loss.

The home nation built their lead through single point steals in four ends with Scottish skip Ewan MacDonald long on two draw-shots, short on another and way off the mark on a take-out attempt for the fourth.

The Scots conceded when MacDonald once again came up short with a draw attempt in the eighth end to give up a steal of two more points.

"That was a good day today," said Canada skip Pat Simmons.

"We're happy with everything.

"We want to keep this momentum going tomorrow.

"We're not going to assume Norway is going to lose, because they're playing very well."

Holders Norway overcame the Czech Republic 12-5 to secure their passage through to the Page 1v2 play-off ©WCF




As for Norway, skip Thomas Ulsrud played a delicate tap-back on one of his own stones to score three points from the fifth end and take the lead, at 5-3, for the first time in the game.

A score of two points in the seventh end was followed by a steal of two points in the eighth, and a further steal of three points in the ninth, to secure the win.

"It was back and forth," said Ulsrud.

"Jiri [Snitil from the Czech Republic] played some really good shots and they got some momentum going.

"Finally we managed to win in the end there, with a big steal of two in the eighth end.

"That was pretty much the game there as we were tied up until then."

Elsewhere, the United States beat Japan 8-6, while Finland got the better of China in an 8-7 victory.

The US stole two points in the third end to take a 4-2 lead and sealed their win with single point scores in the fifth and seventh ends, and a further two points in the ninth.

Finland's Aku Kauste kept his side in the battle for play-off places after scoring the decisive point with a nose-hit in an extra end.

In the first session of the day, Canada beat Switzerland 8-4, while Norway had a six-end 9-2 win over Italy.

There were also wins for Sweden, 11-6 against the US, and China, 8-3 against Russia.

The afternoon session saw Sweden beat Japan 9-2 to consolidate their third-placed ranking, while Finland preceded their win against China by beating Russia 8-6.

There were also victories for Scotland, 5-4 against Switzerland, and Italy, 9-6 against Czech Republic. 

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