Several tight matches took place on the second day of the Championships in Kazan ©WCF

Defending champions Norway began their World Curling Federation (WCF) World Mixed Curling Championships campaign with a victory over Romania at the Kazan Sports Palace today.

The Group A match was a closer affair than many would have anticipated prior to the encounter, with the Romanian team having the opportunity to claim a surprise victory when given the chance to score two points in the final end.

After only managing to score one point they could only take the match into an additional end with the match locked at 4-4.

Norway made the most of their reprieve to score three points and secure a 7-4 triumph and begin the tournament on a high.

Japan, the only Group A team to have played two matches, top the standings after edging out Belarus 6-5 to preserve their 100 per cent start.

The only other nation to boast a win in the group are Scotland, who thrashed Italy 8-3.

Hosts Russia secured their second victory with a narrow 7-5 success against the Czech Republic, with the result seeing them draw level with Poland in Group C, as their rivals overcame Kazakhstan 10-0.

Australia got off the mark by beating Spain 7-2, leaving their opponents winless from their first two fixtures.

In Group D, Canada built on their 9-2 triumph over the United States yesterday by beating France by the same scoreline.

Latvia are keeping pace with the North Americans, as they thrashed Andorra 11-1 for their second victory.

Croatia celebrated their maiden win at a curling World Championship event ©WCF
Croatia celebrated their maiden win at a curling World Championship event ©WCF

The US suffered successive defeats as they fell to an agonising 6-5 loss to South Korea to remain bottom of the standings, while Austria bounced back from their opening day defeat to beat Belgium 8-5.

Group E appears to be shaping up to be one of the tighter competitions as Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Croatia and Estonia all have a win to their credit, although the latter two also have a defeat to their names.

Croatia’s first ever victory at the tournament came against Slovenia where they prevailed 2-1, while Germany moved to the top of the early standings with a 7-3 win over Wales.

Switzerland beat The Netherlands 9-4, before Turkey overcame Estonia 10-5.

A narrow 7-6 win over Finland saw Hungary emerge as the early leaders in Group B, with Sweden also making a strong start by beating Ireland 9-2.

England failed to back up their 12-1 win over Brazil in the morning, as Slovakia beat them 8-3 in the afternoon session.