Jones picks up two important wins; Gushue improves to 4-2 at Beijing 2022

BEIJING — A matchup against last-place Russia was just what Canada's Jennifer Jones needed at the Beijing Olympics on Monday.

A followup victory over Great Britain helped too.

The potential for a poor showing from the women's team seems to have passed. Jones delivered in a big way and displayed the form that led her to an Olympic title eight years ago.

It was vintage Jones - intense high-fives with teammates, clutch shotmaking, pistols when needed - in a performance that should send a shiver through the women's draw.

"Olympic Jen showed up today," said Canadian coach Viktor Kjell. "So that was great."

Did she ever.

When Great Britain's Eve Muirhead missed a come-around in the seventh end, Jones made two perfect shots to shut the door.

Muirhead pressed again in the ninth and Jones answered with a tap against two that essentially put the game away.

"We knew we needed two wins and we came out with two wins," Jones said. "It was a marvellous Monday."

Earlier in the day, Jones took advantage of several mistakes by Alina Kovaleva en route to an 11-5 victory that ended a three-game losing skid.

"One million per cent we needed to win that game," Jones said. "That was a massive win. I thought we played good from the first rock to the last rock."

Jones later improved to 3-3 in round-robin play, good for a three-way tie for fifth place with South Korea and Great Britain.

"Today we eliminated all the bad ends," Jones said. "I thought we had 19 ends of very good curling, so that was the difference.

"We just eliminated those bad shots and made some big shots when we needed them."

A fourth loss for Jones would be a major blow to her chances of making the four-team playoff cut.

"We've been in situations where we've started a little