MONCTON, N.B. April 6, 2009 — Canada's Kevin Martin is keeping pace with Norway's Thomas Ulsrud at the 2009 Ford world men's curling championship at the Moncton Coliseum.

While Norway was improving to 5-0 with a 7-6 win over China's Fengchun Wang, the defending world champs from Alberta — Martin and second Marc Kennedy hail from Edmonton, third John Morris and lead Ben Hebert are from Calgary — won their fourth straight during Draw 7 Monday afternoon, pounding Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic 10-4.

Canada will attempt to move into a tie with Norway later Monday when it plays Germany's Andy Kapp (2-2).

The Canadians took two in the first end and four in the third and cruised home with the win against the Czechs, who dropped to 1-4 with the loss.

"We played pretty well. It was fine," said Martin. "We came out pretty good, actually, and made a lot of shots in the beginning of the game. They'll come, for sure. It doesn't matter; it's the round-robin, you have to play everybody. It doesn't matter what order. The big thing is getting on to the ice, and we're catching on to the speed."

Norway kept its perfect record alive against an increasingly desperate Chinese team, which dropped to 0-4. Norway put deuces on the board in the third, sixth and eighth ends.

In other action, Denmark's Ulrik Schmidt gave his Olympic qualifying hopes a major boost with a 7-3 triumph over France's Thomas Dufour. The Danes broke the game open with three in the ninth end to prompt the handshakes. Denmark improved to 2-3, while France dropped to 2-2.

Also, Japan's Yusuke Morozumi evened his record at .500 with a 10-7 triumph over Finland's Kalle Kiiskinen. Japan scored a go-ahead deuce in the ninth, then salted away the win with a steal of two in the 10th. Finland dropped to 1-4 with the setback.

Scotland's David Murdoch (3-1), John Shuster of the United States (2-2), Germany and Switzerland's Ralph Stoeckli (2-2) all had byes in Draw 6.

Monday at the Ford worlds concludes with a 6:30 p.m. draw (all times Eastern) on TSN and curltv.com.

On Tuesday, draws are scheduled for 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6:30; TSN will show the Canadian games (9 a.m. against Switzerland, 6:30 p.m. against Norway), while curltv.com has coverage of all three draws.