Pilsen, Czech Republic
Tuesday 5 December 2017
It took all the way to a single point steal in an extra end, but China’s skip Bingyu Wang eventually led her team to a 7-6 win over hosts Czech Republic in Tuesday (5 December) afternoon’s opening session of women’s round-robin play at the Olympic Qualification Event in Pilsen, in the Czech Republic.
Czech Republic led early, and, in the third end of the game, Czech skip Anna Kubeskova drew into the house for one point and a 2-1 lead. By the eighth end, Czech Republic were still leading, by 6-2, but Wang started a recovery with a draw for one point that reduced the Czech Republic lead to 6-3.
Wang then stole a single point in the ninth end and two more points in the tenth end to level the game at 6-6 and force the extra end. Czech Republic could not remove the China stone sitting near the button in this end giving up another single point steal and giving China a 7-6 win.
Latvia beat Germany by 10-5, helped largely by a hit by skip Iveta Stasa-Sarsune in the fourth end that gave her team a score of three points and a 5-2 lead.
In the third game of this session, Denmark and Italy were level three times, at 1-1, 3-3 and 4-4, before the Danes scored two points in the eighth end and had a single point steal in the ninth end for a 7-4 lead. The Danes then ran Italy out of stones in the tenth end for their win.
With seven teams competing, Finland were the first team to be allocated a bye.
The next live games, on national broadcasters and World Curling TV (note geo-blocking applies), at this event will be Czech Republic v Finland and Germany v China men at 20:00, Central European Time (+1 hours, Greenwich Mean Time) on Tuesday (5 December) evening.
They said it
Iveta Stasa-Sarsune; skip, Latvia (after 10-5 win over Germany): “This was really a good game and it was important to win the first one. We had a little bit of control in the middle of the game, but this is the first game and anything can happen. This is a great event and we’re happy to be here. It’s great for Latvian curling.”
Madeleine Dupont; skip, Denmark (after 7-4 win over Italy): “I was so nervous, we all were – this is a big thing, it was very up and down all the way – we had a good break and then they had a good break. It could have gone either way, but it’s really great to win, now we need to win them all!”
Bingyu Wang; skip, China (after 7-6 extra end win over Czech Republic): “This was our first game and we know the Czech Republic can play well. We were a little lucky I think. We were nervous at the start but got our feeling towards the end. After the fifth end our whole team found our way.
That will give us confidence, but it’s just the start. We still have five round-robin games to play.”
Women’s session one results: Latvia 10-5 Germany; Denmark 7-4 Italy; Czech Republic 6-7 China
Standings after women’s session one (W-L):
China 1-0
Denmark 1-0
Latvia 1-0
Finland 0-0
Czech Republic 0-1
Germany 0-1
Italy 0-1
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