OSTERSUND – Norway's Anneline Skarsmoen continued her giant-killing ways to conclude day one of the 2008 World Junior Curling Championships.

After disposing of Canada in the morning, the eighteen year-old skipped her team to a 7-4 win over local rivals Sweden.

Holding a 4-2 lead in the seventh end, Swedish skip Cissi Ostlund was looking to steal two. Skarsmoen's last stone of the end just ticked off another and rolled into shot position, and her team padded their lead to 6-2.

Liudmila Privivkova, the most experienced skip in the tournament with World Junior and European titles to her name, recovered from a morning loss to Germany with an 8-3 triumph over Switzerland. "We played really well, and we're happy," said Privivkova.

But what of coach Olga Andrianova?

"(In the morning) she said we played really badly, and she was really very angry for us!" acknowledged Privivkova. "But after this game she said we played really good, we played the game we can play."

In other matches, scored a 9-5 win over the United States, thanks largely to a four-ender to start the game. Denmark edged Japan by a 5-4 count and Canada battled back from a morning loss to beat Germany 8-5.

In men's action, Chris Plys and his United States team took on Glen Muirhead's Scotland. Plys, who has represented his country in the event twice before – finishing ninth in in 2006 and fifth last year – took a big four off the Muirhead side in the fourth, and led 7-3 after six.

The Americans then carelessly gave the Scots a lifeline, losing a three in the seventh end. Still, they were two up coming home without the hammer, but Muirhead could get nothing hidden, and the U.S. finished 8-6 in front.

It was in 2001 that the United States last gained a medal at the World Juniors.

"We'd like to bring home a medal, preferably gold," says Plys. Conceding that the four-ender was the turning point of the game, Plys said, "We almost gave it back with a bonehead call at the seventh, but it certainly helped getting that four."

In other men's second-draw games, Canada was trounced 9-2 by Denmark after just six ends. The Danes cracked a three in the third end and then five points in the sixth on the road to victory. In addition, Switzerland upended China 5-1, Germany blanked the Czech Republic 7-0 and Norway scored four in the eighth end for a 7-4 win over Sweden. 

Real-time results are available at: www.curlingkanalen.se with daily results mirrored on the World Curling Federation website at: results.worldcurling.org

Curlingkanalen is also webcasting selected matches live during the championships.

The event host website is: www.wjcc2008.org