Curling Open, Brno

Japan beat Scotland by 8-6 in Wednesday evening's 14th round-robin session of the Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men's Curling Championship 2019, to share top spot with Sweden, who beat Canada by 9-4 in the same session. This result, and Japan's superior win-loss record against the other top contenders, means that Japan become the first qualifiers for the weekend play-off games.

In Wednesday afternoon's 13th round-robin session of the Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men's Curling Championship 2019 in Lethbridge, Canada, Switzerland beat Korea by 11-2 in just six ends, while Sweden had a 9-5 win over Russia. These results mean that Switzerland and Sweden now join Japan – who sat out this session – at the top of the table, on seven wins and one loss.

While the 2018-2019 curling season is winding down for most curlers, the teams looking to book their spots in next season's European B-Division are gearing up. The European Curling Championships C-Division 2019 will begin on Friday (12 April) for teams looking to be promoted to the European Curling Championships B-Division. The event will be hosted at the Olympic Ice Rink in Brasov, Romania.

Japan beat Canada by 9-3 in just six ends of Wednesday morning's 12th round-robin session of the Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men's Curling Championship 2019 in Lethbridge, Canada for their seventh win so far, a result that sees them replace the Canadians at the top of the rankings.

Defending champions Sweden beat Switzerland by 9-4 while Japan had a 6-4 win over Germany in Monday evening's 11th round-robin session of the Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men's Curling Championship 2019 in Lethbridge, Canada.