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).
“We’re going to do the very best we can,” said skip Hugh Nibloe.
“The pressure has left us now.
“There are positives. We’ve not been destroyed like other teams have been.
“It’s an inexperienced team and some of these guys have more Paralympics in them so let’s see what it feels like to win again.”
On Monday, British pair Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean narrowly missed out on qualification for the semi-finals of the mixed doubles.