David Murdoch's gold medal dream lay in tatters at the Vancouver Olympic Centre after Great Britain's men's curlers were knocked out of the competition in a 7-6 extra end play-off defeat by Sweden.

The defeat ends any hope the reigning world champions had of edging into a semi-final match against favourites Canada on Thursday, which would at the very least have given them the chance of a play-off for bronze.

Murdoch's men never recovered from a nightmare start when Euan Byers missed a routine take-out in the first end allowing the sharp young Swedish skip Niklas Edin to patiently play out for a 2-0 lead.Another missed take-out, this time by Murdoch in the third end, restored Sweden's two-shot advantage and a fractional fifth end miss which gave Sweden back the hammer and forced Murdoch's men to chase the game throughout.

Murdoch clawed back the deficit by winning three straight ends against the hammer - but a brilliant double take-out by Edin in the ninth forced the extra end which the Swedes duly won with the hammer.It is the second consecutive crushing Olympic disappointment for Murdoch and his team. They went to Turin as favourites only to lose the bronze medal play-off, and once again were destined to leave the biggest stage with nothing.