Pilsen, Czech Republic
Thursday 7 December 2017
Thursday night’s fifth session of women’s round-robin play in the Olympic Qualification Event in Pilsen, Czech Republic saw two of the three games go to extra ends before Denmark and Italy emerged as winners to join China – who sat the session out – at the top of the table on three wins and one loss.
In the other game in this session, hosts Czech Republic faced Finland and in the ninth end, with the Czechs leading by 8-5, their skip Anna Kubeskova hit out a Finnish stone to score three points and win the game by 11-5.
Denmark faced Latvia and in the fourth end, Denmark’s skip Madeleine Dupont hit out a Latvian stone to score two points and take a 4-3 lead. In the eighth end, Latvia’s skip Iveta Stasa-Sarsune hit out a Danish stone to score three points and take an 8-7 lead. But eventually this game went to an extra end and Denmark emerged as 10-9 winners when Latvia could not get inside a Danish stone already sitting in the house.
Germany played Italy and in the sixth end, Germany’s skip Daniela Jentsch produced a well-judged and executed double take-out to score two points and level the score at 5-5. The score was level again at 9-9 after ten ends, and in the extra end an umpire’s measure on the last stone showed that Germany’s Jentsch had come up short with her final draw, giving Italy a steal of one point and a 10-9 win.
The next live games, on national broadcasters and World Curling TV (note geo-blocking applies), at this event will be Czech Republic v China men at 09:00, Central European Time (+1 hours, Greenwich Mean Time) on Friday (8 December) morning.
They said it
Alzbeta Baudysova; third, Czech Republic (after 11-5 win over Finland): “It’s a great feeling… we are still in the game. We hope we can make it tomorrow also and get to the play-offs, that’s our goal. I think our game was good today. We were feeling good on the ice, so hopefully we can do it again tomorrow against Italy. It’s awesome to have the home crowd cheering. We were a bit afraid of it in the beginning because we are not used to the crowd, but it’s great. They’ve taken us to the win, so it’s awesome.”
Diana Gaspari; skip, Italy (after 10-9 win over Germany): “I think it would be better if we played well in the middle of the game! We never lose belief. We know these teams are at our level. We always believe that we can do it. We know there will be errors so we never stop believing. We’re never sad or upset, just keep going. Now we have to win our two remaining games, but of course we are happy right now.”
Women’s session five results: Czech Republic 11-5 Finland; Germany 9-10 Italy; Latvia 9-10 Denmark
Standings after women’s session five (W-L):
China 3-1
Denmark 3-1
Italy 3-1
Czech Republic 3-2
Latvia 2-3
Germany 1-3
Finland 0-4
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