GANGNEUNG -- The medal ambitions of the Japanese women's curling team were dented by defending Olympic champion Canada at the Pyeongchang Games on Monday, as Japan was forced to give up after the seventh end, trailing 8-3 at the Gangneung Curling Center.
Suffering its second loss in six matches in round-robin play, Japan dropped to third place, bringing dark clouds to gather over its prospects of progressing to the semifinals.
Japan's remaining opponents -- Sweden, Britain and Switzerland are all placed higher in the world rankings.
Japan was scheduled to face Sweden later in the day.
Canada had a higher percentage of successful shots, delivering its stones to their targets 86 percent of the time compared to Japan's 69 percent.
This was particularly apparent in the fifth end, when Japan skip Sa- tsuki Fujisawa missed both of her shots, including the last shot of the end, to give Canada a critical steal of four points.
Japanese curlers expressed their regret for failing to grasp the condition of the ice.
Chinami Yoshida, whose shot success percentage lagged at 55 percent, said she wants to play the way she usually does in the next match against Sweden, the runners-up at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
"I just want to concentrate on each shot," Yoshida said.
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