Sochi 2014: Sweden defeat China to claim Olympic curling bronze

Sweden win Olympic curling bronze

Sweden's men claimed Winter Olympic bronze after defeating China 6-4 in a dramatic sudden-death 11th end at the Ice Cube Curling Centre in Sochi.

World champions Sweden lost to Great Britain in Wednesday's semi-finals and by beating China avoided finishing fourth for a second successive Games.

China, were in a commanding position in the ninth end, but errors cost them a first-ever men's Olympic curling medal.

The British men will contest for Olympic gold with Canada at 13:30 GMT.

China led 4-3 heading into the last regulation end - the tenth - but would have been in a more dominant position but for a surprise error from their skip Rui Liu

He failed to release his first stone before it passed the hog line meaning it was 'burnt' and annulled - and thus the advantage was handed back to Sweden.

Lui's team-mate Xiaoming Xu bafflingly repeated that mistake in the crucial sudden-death 11th end.

With Swedish skip Niklas Edin placing his final two stones to perfection it gave his nation their first men's Olympic curling medal since the sport debuted at the 1924 Chamonix Games.