Pilsen, Czech Republic
Wednesday 6 December 2017
Netherlands’ men’s team recorded their first win at the Olympic Qualification Event 2017 on Wednesday night in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Meanwhile, Denmark became the first team to beat the only unbeaten team going into the third session of men’s round-robin games, China.
In the fifth end of the game, between Denmark and China, China’s skip Rui Liu made a raise double take-out, scoring two points to take a 3-2 lead. However, Denmark’s skip Rasmus Stjerne drew for one point in the sixth end to level the scores 3-3, before his team went on to win 5-3.
In their game against Finland, Netherlands’ skip Jaap van Dorp made a draw for two points to give his team a 4-3 lead after the fourth end. Then, in the seventh end, van Dorp scored a single point to move ahead 7-4, before Netherlands won the game 8-4.
Germany and hosts Czech Republic went head-to-head in this session and it was Germany who recorded their second win of the event, 8-4. In the ninth end Germany’s skip Alexander Baumann scored two points to secure the win, 8-4.
Also during this session, Italy had a 6-5 win over Russia, which was decided with the last stone of the last end, where Italy’s skip Joel Retornaz scored two points for the win.
The next live game, on national broadcasters and World Curling TV (note geo-blocking applies), at this event will be Denmark v Czech Republic women at 09:00, Central European Time (+1 hours, Greenwich Mean Time) on Thursday (7 December) morning.
They said it
Carlo Glasbergen; lead, Netherlands (after 8-4 win over Finland): “It was just great to finally perform like we can. We improved from the previous games and took the learning moments. We would like to keep improving our performance. It is good to grow throughout the event.”
Rasmus Stjerne; skip, Denmark (after 5-3 win over China): “That is a big one. China were the front runners. If we forfeited this one we would have been in the bottom, but right now we keep it close. Every win is important. [It took] a really good team effort to win this game. They weren’t sharp and we took advantage of that.”
Men’s session three results: Netherlands 8-4 Finland; Denmark 5-3 China; Russia 5-6 Italy; Germany 8-4 Czech Republic
Standings after men’s session three (W-L):
China 2-1
Denmark 2-1
Germany 2-1
Italy 2-1
Czech Republic 1-2
Finland 1-2
Netherlands 1-2
Russia 1-2
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