Great Britain slipped to a fourth successive defeat in the wheelchair curling mixed team event at the Winter Paralympics and remain second-bottom of the standings as a result of an 8-6 loss to Italy.
Only the top four of the 10 competing nations in Cortina will qualify for the semi-finals and the British side’s latest defeat means the best they can achieve in the round-robin phase is four wins – a tally already reached by four teams.
For the second time in the competition, Great Britain switched their quartet during the course of a match. Trailing the hosts 5-3 at the halfway stage, alternate Graeme Stewart replaced Austin McKenzie.
The decisive moment came in the sixth end when Italian skip Egidio Marchese delivered a superb final stone into a packed house to score three, moving his side into an 8-5 lead with two ends remaining.
Great Britain were unable to find a way back, leaving them with a record of one win and five defeats from six matches.
They have three round-robin games left to play and two of those are on Wednesday, against defending Paralympic champions China (08:05 GMT) and Latvia (19:05).
On Monday, British pair Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean narrowly missed out on qualification for the semi-finals of the mixed doubles.
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