Pilsen (Czech Republic): After three sessions of women’s round-robin play and two men’s sessions, both China teams sit at the top of the rankings, undefeated, at curling’s final Olympic Qualification Event in Pilsen, Czech Republic.
This event will decide the last two teams of each gender that will join the ten-team line-ups at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games in February.
The women played twice on Wednesday (6 December) and China’s Bingyu Wang and her team followed up a one-sided six-end 9-0 morning win over Finland, that featured steals in five successive ends, by beating Latvia 11-5. Denmark, who sat out the evening session, had earlier beaten Germany by 9-7 to be the only other unbeaten women’s team, although they have played one game less than China. Germany later recovered from their loss to Denmark by beating the Czech hosts by 10-7. Before their loss to Germany, Czech Republic women had beaten Latvia by 9-5. To complete Wednesday’s women’s action, Italy handed Latvia their second loss of the day with an 11-5 win in the evening session.
In men’s play, China beat Italy by 10-5 in Wednesday afternoon’s second session of men’s round-robin play to stand alone unbeaten at the top of the rankings. In the third end of this game, China’s skip Rui Liu played an angle raise take-out to score three points and move into a 3-2 lead. The Chinese then consolidated their position in the sixth end when Liu hit out an Italian stone to score three points again, for a 9-4 lead. They went on to win by 10-5.
In the other games of this session, Denmark, Finland and Germany all recorded their first wins, leaving only the Netherlands still looking for their first victory. Denmark beat Czech Republic by 10-4, while Finland beat Russia by 9-6 and Germany were 4-3 winners over Netherlands.
Statements of Skips:
Daniela Jentsch, skip, Germany (after 10-7 win over Czech Republic): “We needed to change something [bringing in alternate Emira Abbes in second] because we weren’t getting on a role. I think we have now found the combination that works for us right now. It made a big difference – we felt safe, secure and confident on the ice.”
Diana Gaspari; skip, Italy (after 7-4 win over Finland): “We are on track now. We were a bit out of the first game but today’s bye was good for us because we could rest, so now we’re fine. We needed this win to get confidence of course, but we’re ready to go now. We will keep fighting.”
Bingyu Wang; skip, China (after 11-5 win over Latvia): “We hope we can get this dream [- going to the Olympics]. We need to play better-better and have more patience and confidence.”
Rui Liu; skip, China (after 10-5 win over Italy): “This second game was difficult for us, we struggled for the first five ends. But, then we got three points and that made everything happen. Overall, I’m happy with our team’s performance – we just want to play our own way.”
Rasmus Stjerne; skip, Denmark (after 10-4 win over Czech Republic): “We felt we were playing well coming into the event but yesterday we were just on the wrong side of the rolls and heavy on the weight, so today it was just back to process, and believing we could do it.”
Aku Kauste; skip, Finland (after 9-6 win over Russia): “That feels pretty good. Yesterday we played a decent game and we had several chances but couldn’t capitalise. Today we played pretty well. The score of three helped but I think we played pretty well for the whole game. The ice feels really nice, I’m really happy with the way it curls and the speed.”
Alexander Baumann; skip, Germany (after 4-3 win over Netherlands): “That was a really important win. We started with a loss to China and now we’re under pressure for the rest of the tournament. Most games are must-win now.”
RESULTS
Women’s session two results: Czech Republic 9-5 Latvia; Finland 0-9 China; Germany 7-9 Denmark
Women’s session three results: Germany 10-7 Czech Republic; Italy 7-4 Finland; China 11-5 Latvia
Men’s session two results: Italy 5-10 China; Netherlands 3-4 Germany; Denmark 10-4 Czech Republic; Russia 6-9 Finland
STANDINGS: Standings after women’s session three (W-L):
China 3-0
Denmark 2-0
Italy 1-1
Czech Republic 1-2
Germany 1-2
Latvia 1-2
Finland 0-2
STANDINGS: Standings after men’s session two (W-L):
China 2-0
Czech Republic 1-1
Denmark 1-1
Finland 1-1
Germany 1-1
Italy 1-1
Russia 1-1
Netherlands 0-2
(Source: WCF)