Winter Paralympics: Great Britain face tough battle to reach wheelchair curling semi-final

Skip Hugh Nibloe, Gregor Ewan, David Melrose, Meggan Dawson-Farrell and Gary Smith boosted their chances with a 10-5 victory over Estonia on Tuesday

Great Britain have dropped to seventh in the wheelchair curling standings (AP)

Great Britain face an uphill battle to qualify for the semi-finals of the wheelchair curling after mixed results on day four of the Winter Paralympics.

Skip Hugh Nibloe, Gregor Ewan, David Melrose, Meggan Dawson-Farrell and Gary Smith boosted ParalympicsGB’s chances with a 10-5 victory over Estonia on Tuesday morning.

But they then suffered a 6-4 defeat to Sweden in the evening session to drop to seventh in the standings, with the top four teams advancing to the semi-finals.

Great Britain fought back from 6-0 down to trail 6-3 in the final end and were lying three, before two of their stones were taken out by Sweden’s hammer.

Elsewhere, Scott Meenagh made it back-to-back top-10 finishes in the biathlon as he equalled his best Paralympic result in the middle distance event.

Meenagh matched his result in Saturday’s sprint biathlon by finishing ninth in a time of 33min 11.7sec with team-mate Callum Deboys down in 18th.

“That was a really fun race today, I enjoyed every moment of it,” Meenagh said.

“There was a lot of misses out there which kept it very competitive. (I’m) disappointed to have joined the group with all those misses, but that’s biathlon.

Scott Meenagh on the shooting range in the middle distance sitting para biathlon at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre (PA Media)

“I felt like I skied really well and kept myself in the race right up until the very last lap and I think – for me – that all I can ask for is just to be in the conversation.

“The sun’s out and I really enjoyed it, feeling pretty inspired for the last couple of races out here in Beijing.”