Team JJ feel renewed belief despite China defeat

While Team JJ experienced defeat on the ice, it was accompanied by a renewed belief in ParalympicsGB’s gold medal-winning credentials in mixed doubles wheelchair curling.

Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean suffered 10-5 defeat to China but achieved a feat no other team has in the competition.

Recently dubbed Team JJ led 5-1 after the third end to become the first pair in the competition to hold a four-point advantage over the unbeaten tournament favourites.

And while it earned qualification to the semi-finals for China, Butterfield is determined that the teams will meet again with a different outcome.

“If we can find a way to keep that going, hopefully we’ll meet them again in the play-offs at some stage and we’ll know how to play it,” said the 46-year-old.

“I was quite nervous in that game. It probably was the psychology of playing China. And maybe because we found ourselves in the lead you don’t believe you’re good enough.

“We have to shake that off and believe that we are. We are. We more than matched them for that first half. We know that if we see them again, we won’t be the underdogs.

“If we play that first four ends for eight ends, we can beat them.”

As has become customary for Butterfield and Kean, they came out of the blocks flying, taking a 3-0 advantage from the first end.

And having restricted China to only one-point in the second end, they once again looked dominant in the third with a two-point win to place themselves 5-1 to the good.

But China’s strength would soon show, as they achieved a two-point steal on the powerplay as GB’s grip on the encounter slipped away.

It meant the match ended after the seventh end with a five-point deficit separating the sides, as Kean admitted they got their tactics wrong after half time.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow but we did it to ourselves, unfortunately,” he said.

“We changed our tactics and we shouldn’t have done. We both decided that we were going to chase and it was the wrong decision.

“Really it should have been carry on doing what you were doing in the first half, and make them play the harder shots.”

It leaves Team JJ joint second in the standings with three wins and three losses with Italy up next in their final round robin match.

That semi-final spot is very much still on the cards but with six other teams all tied with them currently, it is no foregone conclusion.

“We’ve got one more game, so we’ll do our best and grind out the win,” added Kean.

“That’s what we’ll do because we were 5-1 up there on China. It was fantastic because we kept it simple, we didn’t have to do anything.”