Norway beat Sweden today to inflict a first defeat on their Scandinavian rivals at the World Men’s Curling Championships in Las Vegas ©WCF/Steve Seixeiro

Norway beat Sweden today to inflict a first defeat on their Scandinavian rivals at the World Men’s Curling Championships in Las Vegas and join them at the top of the standings.

The Norwegians triumphed 5-3 in the evening session at the Orleans Arena, meaning both they and Sweden ended the day with six wins out of seven matches.

Sweden had earlier defeated the United States 7-2, while Norway overcame China 6-5.

Canada and Scotland are tied for third place having both won their two outings today.

The morning session saw Canada beat South Korea 7-6 and Scotland defeat Germany 9-4.

In the afternoon, Canada overcame Japan 9-2 and Scotland beat The Netherlands 8-3.

Scotland won their two matches today ©WCF/Richard Gray
Scotland won their two matches today ©WCF/Richard Gray

Russia occupy fifth place with four victories out of six having defeated Japan 6-5 and Germany 8-6.

Also winning two matches today were Switzerland, who overcame Italy 6-5 and South Korea 12-11.

Italy bounced back from their loss to beat China 11-5.

The top six teams will qualify for the play-off stage - rather than four which was the case previously - after the round-robin phase is completed on Friday (April 6).

The qualification games and semi-finals are due to take place on Saturday (April 7) and the medal games will be on Sunday (April 8).