GRAND FORKS – With just one more day of round-robin action to go, no less than six teams are gunning for the last three playoff spots at the 2008 World Men's Curling Championship.

Canada's Kevin Martin has clinched first place at 8-1, while Norway's Thomas Ulsrud (who defeated France 6-4) and Scotland's David Murdoch (a 6-4 winner over Switzerland) are both at 6-3.

Four other teams are tied for third place at 5-4: France, Australia, China (who beat the Czech Republic 7-3) and the United States, who thumped despondent Germany 8-5.

The Americans are back in the race for a playoff spot after a lacklustre start. Meanwhile, Germany's Andy Kapp, the 2007 world silver medallist, jumped out to a 4-0 start and hasn't won a game since.

Norway's Ulsrud is taking his last two games very seriously.

"We're in trouble," said Ulsrud, who captured bronze at the 2006 Worlds in Lowell, Massachusetts.

"We need two wins badly. It's tight out there. We look pretty good right now, but we don't want to fall back into that pack."

Thursday's lineup of 12 concluding games features some spectacular matchups, including Norway versus China, Scotland against Germany and USA versus Canada.

Numerous television groups are delivering live and tape-delayed action, plus highlight packages, to world curling fans. Eurosport, CBC/CBCSports.ca/Bold (Canada), NBCOlympics.com and WCSN (United States) and CurlTV are all on site in Grand Forks.

Live results, with linescores and shooting percentages, are available via: worldmenscurling2008.com with mirrored scores also posted at: results.worldcurling.org