Day 6 (Wednesday 11 October) at the World Mixed Curling Championship 2017 being held in Champéry, Switzerland, saw several teams secure places in the play-off stage.
For all the latest news, results and standings visit the event website – http://worldcurling.org/wmxcc2017
In the day’s opening session of play, Russia became the second team to secure their place in the play-offs after a convincing 9-0 victory over Estonia. Also in that session Czech Republic moved a step closer to the play-offs with an extra end 8-7 victory over Israel.
The day’s second session of play saw both Sweden and Poland secure their places in the play-offs. Sweden guaranteed their place and continued their unbeaten run after a commanding 9-1 victory over USA in six ends. While Poland went all the way to an extra end in their 9-8 victory over Germany to ensure their place in the play-offs.
With only one guaranteed play-off place remaining in Group E, Turkey put themselves into prime position to claim it by defeating Netherlands 8-2 in only six ends.
Last night’s (Tuesday 10 October) late sessions saw Canada become the first team in the championship to claim a play-off place when they defeated Netherlands 8-1 maintaining their undefeated record. The sessions also saw Belarus pick up their first win of the week with a 5-2 win over previously undefeated China and England claim their first win by defeating Germany 7-5.
They said it
Grant Hardie; Scotland skip (after 10-4 win over Denmark): “We started a wee bit sluggish. I think having lost yesterday morning in the last game, it was quite good to bounce back with a win. We got a big five in the fourth end and that settled us down, and we played really well the last three ends to finish it off. We’re always keeping one eye on the table, so to get that win and get to three, then a couple more wins should see us into the play-offs.”
Andrew Woolston; England skip (after 7-5 win over Germany): “We’ve been very close in three games, but managed to keep playing well until the end of the game there which was good. I think we were really good with our hits today. We managed to hang around with our hits and put some pressure on Andrea [Schoepp] so that helped us a lot. This was our first time at the worlds so it’s really good to get that win out of the way.”
Yannick Schwaller; Switzerland skip (after 7-5 win over Finland): “We had some struggles in the games against Israel and Slovakia, we just didn’t find our game, especially me, but the whole team had pretty strong delivery so we’re very happy, and now we keep going. We’ve lost two games so we know we have to win every game now to have a chance of making it to the play-offs, but I’m really optimistic that we’ll do that.”
Isabella Wranaa; Sweden skip (after 9-1 win over USA): “It’s always fun to know that you’ve made the play-offs, but we still have one game left in the round-robin against China so we’re going to focus on that one first, then we can think about the play-offs. That just confirms to us that we know the ice now and that we can put the stones where we want them. We know the USA guys can play better than they did today too, so we had a bit of luck on our side as well.”
Andrzej Augustyniak; Poland skip (after 9-8 extra end win over Germany): “It was a very tough game. I think it was the most chaotic game we’ve ever played as a team. It was very tough to read the ice and the stones for about half the match. We just didn’t know what was going to happen. After the five it boosted our confidence and let us settle down so that we could make it through. It feels very good to qualify for the play-offs, that was the plan, now we just have to play against Turkey to decide our place in the group.”
RESULTS Session 17
Norway 5-4 Israel; Scotland 10-4 Denmark; Finland 5-7 Switzerland; Latvia 3-6 Sweden; England 7-5 Germany.
RESULTS Session 18
Slovakia 5-3 Austria; Slovenia 5-8 Hungary; China 2-5 Belarus; Canada 8-1 Netherlands; Spain 4-5 Korea.
RESULTS Session 19
Russia 9-0 Estonia; Japan 6-5 Wales; New Zealand 6-7 Denmark; Scotland 9-2 Luxembourg; Israel 7-8 Czech Republic.
RESULTS Session 20
Sweden 9-1 USA; Germany 8-9 Poland; Belarus 9-8 Brazil; Netherlands 2-8 Turkey.
(Source: WCF)