Trio of nations lead the way with hat-trick of mixed curling wins

The day began with heavy wins for England over Kazakhstan, Scotland over Bulgaria, Ireland over Serbia and Italy over Denmark – with each of the four victors notching double figure scores, forcing their contests to be ended prematurely.

Session one also saw a 6-2 win for Norway over Wales, while the second session also saw big wins for China – beating Israel 13-2 – and Austria as they eased past Poland 10-3.

Spain beat New Zealand 8-6, while Austria got past the Netherlands 9-5, but Korea were made to work for their 6-5 win over Sweden, scoring the winning point in the eighth and final end.

As the play moved into the afternoon Latvia took to the ice and blew Belarus away 11-4, while Japan hammered Brazil by the same scoreline and Hungary made light work of Croatia with a 10-2 win.

Dorottya Palancsa, one half of the Hungarian pairing, said: "I think we played much better than yesterday, we got used to the ice more quickly. We have one more game today against Latvia, and we need to concentrate on that one from now."

Slovakia also recorded a comfortable 8-1 win over Slovenia, while Finland were made to work for their 8-6 victory over Estonia.

The Koreans then recorded their second win of the day in the fourth session, with a 7-5 defeat of Austria, while Canada flew to a 9-1 win over France and the Czech Republic and Germany both scored eight as they beat Turkey and Kazakhstan, respectively.

USA beat England 7-2 in the final game of the session, meaning they are joint top of Group D with Canada and the Czech Republic on two wins apiece.

But the final session of the day saw both Switzerland and Latvia move on to three wins from three and the Swiss scored two in the final end to beat Russia 7-5, and Latvia needed a final stone point against the hammer to defeat Hungary 6-5.

Switzerland's Martin Rios said: "We played a pretty good first four ends, I was a little heavy on my draws. I think we have space to improve, especially on the power plays – but there's still time to improve."

Elsewhere in the final session Austria beat Israel 8-3, while Sweden and New Zealand both racked up 13 points in big wins over Poland and Romania, respectively.

Day two's action means Latvia, Korea and Switzerland lead groups A, C and E, while Italy and Scotland have two wins each to top the standings in Group B.

Sportsbeat 2017