The New Zealand men's curling team lost its world championship chance when it was beaten 11-7 by China in the semifinals of the Asia and Pacific championships in Shanghai.
The team of Peter de Boer (skip), Sean Becker, Scott Becker, Kenny Thomson and Phil Dowling will play Korea in the bronze medal game.
China took command on the fourth end when its skip, Rui Liu, drew the third stone to give China a commanding 7-3 lead.
New Zealand was always playing catch-up after that. It was unable to pull back points and lost by four.
The best of five games semifinals was reduced to one game because China had beaten New Zealand in both round-robin games earlier in the competition.
China will play Japan in the final after Japan beat Korea 9-7 in the other semifinal.
The New Zealand women's team of Chelsea Farley, Thivya Jeyaranjan, Tessa Farley, Waverley Taylor and Liz Matthews lost its semifinal against Korea 9-5. It will play Japan in the bronze medal game.
The women's final will be between Korea and China.
