Canada's Homan, Morris drop opener to Great Britain in mixed doubles curling

Canadian mixed doubles curling duo John Morris and Rachel Homan dropped the opening game of Canada's Olympic title defence with a 6-4 loss to reigning world champions Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds of Great Britain on Thursday morning in Beijing.

Morris and Homan, the first Canadians to compete at Beijing 2022, faced a stiff challenge in their opening round-robin game against a top rival for the gold.

Great Britain entered the game with momentum after kicking off the tournament with a solid 9-5 win over Sweden's Oskar Eriksson and Almida de Val. The British duo won gold at the world mixed doubles championship last May.

Morris had two uncharacteristic misses in the first end against Great Britain, but Homan saved the end and opened the scoring with a hit and roll to the button to score one.

Great Britain pulled even with a single in the second end before taking a 2-1 lead with a steal of one in the third end.

WATCH l Canada falls to Great Britain in mixed doubles curling opener:

Morris began to get things going in the fourth end after a slow start as the Canadians tied the game at two apiece.

"It's tough out there. We're seeing lots of misses but we're all learning from the ice and it'll get better and better as we go on," Homan said after the loss.

Great Britain reclaimed the lead with a single in the fifth, but Homan stepped up once again by scoring a clutch double on the final shot of the sixth end to give Canada a 4-3 lead.

Great Britain responded by scoring two in the seventh end to take a one-point lead.

Canada had the hammer in the eighth end, but Morris missed a double. Dodds then made a great shot to set up the win, with Homan unable to make anything happen on the final shot of the game.

"We learned a lot this game and had some amazing shots by both of us," Homan said.

"To touch on the eighth end, we're learning. We threw it as best as we could and didn't quite get the angle that we needed to. We kind of left the door open for them to put one on the pin, and we didn't really have a shot in the end."

Despite the loss, Canada is poised to go far in the mixed doubles tournament with the two highly decorated Ottawa curlers.

Morris, 43, captured Olympic mixed doubles gold alongside Kaitlyn Lawes four years ago in South Korea, and he won the Olympic men's tournament with skip Kevin Martin in Vancouver in 2010.

He has been playing with Homan since 2015, but she was ineligible for the mixed doubles Olympic tournament in 2018 after winning the women's Olympic trials.

Curling Canada selected Morris and Homan to represent the Canada in Beijing after the Olympic trials were cancelled in December due to the pandemic.

The experienced duo will look to get things on track in their next game against 2018 Olympic bronze medallists Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten of Norway on Thursday at 7:05 a.m. ET.

"It feels good to get that first one under your belt. There is a lot of good energy out there and it's such a fantastic venue here, it just feels great to be playing the Olympics," Morris said.

"It wasn't our best first one, we have lots to work on and we're already looking forward to getting back on the ice tonight."

Great Britain faces a tough test in its third game against Switzerland's Jenny Perret and Martin Rios — the duo who took home Olympic silver in 2018 with the loss to Canada.

"We played them once before as a team, so we know roughly what we're expecting. It's going to be a really good game, I think," Mouat said. "And hopefully we can come out and play a wee [little] bit better than we have been, but I think I'm very excited to play them."

Making its second Olympic appearance after debuting in Pyeongchang, the mixed doubles tournament in Beijing will see 10 teams compete in the round-robin stage. The top four will advance to the semifinals to battle for a spot in the gold-medal game on Feb. 8 at 7 a.m. ET.

All games will be streamed live on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBC Sports' Beijing 2022 website.