Oestersund, Sweden
Friday 27 April 2018
Friday evening’s quarter-final stage of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2018 being held in the Östersund Arena in Oestersund, Sweden brought wins and semi-final places for Canada, Korea, Russia and Switzerland.
In a close game throughout, Russia defeated hosts Sweden 8-5 to move into the semi-finals. The teams traded single points for the first three ends before Sweden scored two points in the fourth end for a 3-2 lead at the break.
The teams traded two-point scores over the next two ends before Russia used a power-play in the seventh end to score three points and pull ahead. Sweden used their own power-play in the eighth end, but as both teams filled the house with stones, they were unable to get into scoring position and gave up a steal of one point.
Russia now play Korea in tomorrow’s (Saturday 28 April) semi-finals while Sweden fall into the classification games.
The Olympic team from Korea faced the Olympians from Japan in the session’s closest game, and it was the Korean’s who came out ahead with a 6-5 win.
The teams traded single points in the first four ends as neither side could find an opening. Then in the second half the teams stayed perfectly matched as they traded two-point scores for the next two ends.
Japan made use of their power-play in the seventh end looking for a big score but could only score a single point.
Korea made use of their power-play in the eighth end and when Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa was off target with her final stone, sending a Korean stone into shot position, Korea’s Hyeji Jang was left with a simple draw for a score of two points, the win and a place in the semi-finals.
Canada opened the scoring in their game against Turkey with two points, then followed that up with a further two points in the third end on their way to a 7-4 win. Canada lead 6-4 going into the eighth end with last stone advantage, and despite Turkey putting themselves in position to steal a win, Canada’s Laura Crocker drew her final stone into the four-foot for the single point and the win.
Canada will now play Switzerland in tomorrow’s semi-final stage.
In the session’s final game Switzerland defeated Hungary 8-5 to claim their semi-final place. After scoring three points in the second end, Switzerland then stole two points in the third end to take control of the game before eventually running Hungary out of stones in the eighth end.
The winners all progress to the semi-final stage that will take place tomorrow at 12:00 CEST and will see Canada face Switzerland and Russia play Korea.
The losers of these games now move into a classification play-off structure in order to determine the rankings from fifth to eighth place. In that play-off ONE will play TWO and THREE will play FOUR at the same time as the semi-final stage tomorrow afternoon.
Earlier this afternoon, the quarter-final losers moved into the B-Side classification games in order to determine the rankings from ninth to 12th place. In the quarter-final stage of that play-off, Italy beat United States 6-5, Norway beat China 6-3, Czech Republic defeated Estonia 7-6 and Scotland beat Finland by 8-4. The semi-final stage of this classification play-off will take place tomorrow morning at 08:30 CEST.
They said it
Daniil Goriachev; Russia (after 8-5 win over Sweden): “Our game plan was the same as always, which is to give 100% in each end and just play the best game we can. This has been a very hard season for us and so a lot of emotions came with this win. But now we are determined to just play our best game tomorrow and win a medal.”
Laura Crocker; Canada (after 7-4 win over Turkey): “Any time you get a lead you have to be happy because mixed doubles is such a back and forth game so it’s good to have a cushion there because a three or a four or even a dive can come out of nowhere. Going into tomorrow we just want to fall back on what’s been working for us so far which has been dialling in our draw weight and communicating about the ice. If we can do those two things I think we’ll have a pretty good chance.”
Michele Jaeggi; Switzerland (after 8-5 win over Hungary): “We are just so happy because this is our first year playing together. We decided late in August, ‘okay let’s focus on mixed doubles,’ because of we didn’t want to do four-person curling. So, we hope that we can keep going.”
Hyeji Jang; Korea (after 6-5 win over Japan): “At the Olympics we had so much experience with the ice-reading and so many strategies for any difficulties in defeating the other teams. and we had so many easy shots in the Olympics so we have a good game at the Championships now.“
Results
Quarter-finals: Russia 8-5 Sweden; Turkey 4-7 Canada; Korea 6-5 Japan; Hungary 5-8 Switzerland.
B-Side Quarter-finals: United States 5-6 Italy; China 6-3 Norway; Czech Republic 7-6 Estonia; Scotland 8-4 Finland.
To engage with the World Curling Federation on social media during the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2018 follow it on Twitter, Instagram (@worldcurling) and Facebook (/WorldCurlingFederation) and use the hashtags when posting: #WMDCC2018 #curling