It's tight, tense and very competitive as the second period begins.

Japan still lead thanks to that early deflected effort from Haruka Toko. The Czech Republic are on course for a meeting with Canada or USA as it stands.

Image source, Getty

If you are just joining us, the big news from a British perspective was a chance for a first medal of the Games sliding south in the mixed doubles bronze-medal match.

Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat lost their bronze-medal match 9-3 to a superb Sweden.

The Swedes surged into a 7-1 lead after just three ends and never let up.

Scots Dodds and Mouat - the world champions - were one of the key hopes for Team GB, who have targeted between three and seven medals in Beijing.

They will get another chance when the team events begin on Wednesday.

The first men are coming into the finish in the men's 20km biathlon.

Johannes Thingnes Boe clocks a total time of 49 minutes 18.5 seconds.

Is he going to defend that 2018 gold?

His brother, Tarjei, comes in at 50:17.0, after Russian Maxim Tsvetkov finishes in 49:22.3...

But we have a new leader! France's Quentin Fillon Maillet produces a brilliant finish to complete the course 31.1 seconds quicker than Boe.

He'll have a nervous wait now as the rest of the field come in.

Image source, Getty Images

• 1030-1150 - Speed skating: Men’s 1500m - GB's Cornelius Kersten in action.
• 1145-1215 - Cross-country final: Women’s and men’s sprint - GB's Andrew Young and James Clugnet have missed out on qualification.
• 1200-1400 - Curling: Mixed doubles gold match - Italy v Norway.
• 1145-1415 - Luge: Women's third and fourth runs.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Quentin Fillon Maillet with a costly miss on the third shoot which could put an end to his medal hopes.

Current leader Maxim Tsvetkov and defending champion Johannes Thingnes Boe are racing on to their fourth shoot now... argh a mistake for both here, with Tsvetkov just missing a clean shoot with his final attempt!

World champion Sturla Holm Laegreid suffers an early miss in his first shoot.

Image source, Getty

It's getting pretty tasty out there as Dominika Laskova gets away with a hefty bodycheck on Sena Suzuki.

Moments later Chiho Osawa is sin-binned for a shove on Pavlina Horalkova - but the Czechs cannot take advantage in the power play and Japan hold onto their lead at the end of the first period.

Meanwhile, replays of the opening goal showed Haruka Toko's shot was going wide but it took a deflection off the glove of a Czech Republic defender.

When your luck's in...

Image source, Getty Images

It is bad news for Great Britain from the Zhangjiakou National Cross Country Skiing Centre.

Both Andrew Young and James Clugnet have not made the cut for the top 30. The Brits' Olympic campaign does not get off to a good start. That is particularly disappointing for Young who was hoping to improve on a 12th-place finish at Pyeongchang 2018.

France's Lucas Chanavat is top of the pops currently with a few athletes still out on the course.

Rob Walker
Commentator on BBC TV

No man has defended the 20km individual biathlon title for 50 years, that is how difficult it is to win this event once, let alone twice.

We are only just halfway through the field of athletes going out, the world champion Sturla Holm Laegreid has just gone out to start his quest for glory.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Norway's Johannes Thingnes Bo is aiming to defend his Olympic title in the men's 20km biathlon.

Winner of the World Cup overall for the past three seasons, Boe and his older brother Tarjei are in contention in the early stages with current 'potential order' rankings of third and fourth respectively.

It's ROC athlete Maxim Tsvetkov who has made the best start of those in the first group however, after the 8.9km point.

Fellow Russian Alexander Loginov has so far posted the quickest time after the first shoot.

Kent Simpson
Commentator on BBC TV

It has been constant pressure from Japan. The Czech players were scrambling to get in a block, but the final shot was a beauty.

A massive opening goal.

Image source, Getty Images

Japan have made a good start against the Czech Republic, with Haruka Toko firing through a crowd of Czech players to give them an early lead.

James Clugnet is the first of two Britons out the traps in the cross-country skiing qualification, with Andrew Young not too far behind.

The maths are simple. Ninety athletes compete over a 1.5km course, the fastest 30 are through to the quarter-finals.

Hopes are high that both Clugnet and Young should be in that top 30...let's see.

Here are the current standings going into Japan's game against the Czech Republic.

For the preliminary round the 10 teams were split into two groups, with the top five seeds in Group A and seeds 6-10 in Group B.

All five teams from Group A and the top three from Group B advance to the quarter-finals.

During the knockout rounds, teams are seeded for each phase based on their preliminary round ranking. This means that position in the bracket for the semi-finals cannot be predetermined.

Image source, Olympics.com

There's been some breathtaking performances on day four, while Great Britain awaits its first medal of the Beijing Games.

• Curling: GB's Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds were beaten 9-3 by Sweden in the mixed doubles bronze-medal match.
• Ski Big Air: Home favourite Eileen Gu claimed gold in a pulsating final as GB's Kirsty Muir finished fifth.
• Figure skating: American Nathan Chen delivered a world record-scoring routine to lead the men's event but Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu medal chances were badly dented.
• Parallel giant slalom: Czech snowboarder Ester Ledecka defended her title.
• Super G: Austrian skier Matthias Mayer triumphed for the third Olympic gold medal of his career.

Image source, Getty

The men's 20km biathlon is under way. Gruelling cross-country skiing, combined with pin-point shooting. Oh it's a tough one all right.

Beginning at 30-second intervals, we have 92 competitors heading out onto the course, which includes four stops at the shooting range.

Accuracy is key here. A one-minute penalty is added to the overall time for each missed target.

It all means there can be agonising waits for the athletes at the finish line.

The second women's ice hockey match of the day is about to begin at the Wukesong Sports Centre.

It's the final day of the preliminary round with Group B leaders Japan taking on second-placed Czech Republic.

Both sides are already through to the quarter-finals, though they will want to win this game in order to avoid a meeting with Canada or USA in the last eight.

Image source, Getty Images

Sweden's Jonna Sundling - a two-time champion at last year's World Championships, including in this event - is the fastest through qualification in the women's event.

The top 30 all progress so the contenders will all have been keeping plenty in store for the pointy end of things.

The men, including Britain's Andrew Young and James Clugnet, are poling their way to the startline.

Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport in Zhangjiakou

We've two Brits competing in the men's event today - Andrew Young and James Clugnet.

Young, who is appearing at his fourth Olympics here, only arrived in China on Saturday after testing positive for Covid-19 in mid-January and checked out the course for the first time yesterday.

Will that have an impact on his performance today?

Their qualification round begins in about 15 minutes

Simon Gleave
Head of sports analysis, Nielsen Gracenote

One of Sweden's curling bronze medallists in the mixed doubles, Oskar Eriksson, is the first person to win three medals in Olympic curling. He won bronze in 2014 and silver in 2018 as a member of the Swedish men's curling team.

Rhona Howie
Olympic gold medallist curler on BBC TV

Jen (Dodds) and Bruce (Mouat) are going into the men and women's competitions - they've done Britain proud this week and they will again next week because they're both so professional in their outlook to the game. They'll come out fighting and give it their all on the ice - both of them will hopefully be in a medal position in two weeks time.

Both of the teams are on form, they've both won gold at the European Championships so they're coming into this with great confidence. It's a long week ahead but we're confident they're on the form they need to be on to medal.