Oestersund, Sweden
Saturday 28 April 2018
In two close semi-finals that both went all the way to the last stone Russia defeated Korea 6-4 and Switzerland won 7-5 over Canada to progress to this afternoon’s (Saturday 28 April) gold medal final at the Östersund Arena and compete for the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2018 title.
Russia controlled the first half of their game against Korea and opened the scoring with a single point in the first end, before applying pressure to Korea in the second end and forcing a steal of one point. Korea got onto the scoreboard with a single point in the third end after which Russia ended the half with another single point to make the score 3-1 at the break.
The second half was similar in the first, with both teams loading the house and trying to force mistakes from the other. Korea scored two points in the fifth end but Russia responded in kind with two points of their own in the sixth end.
Korea made use of their power-play in the seventh end in an effort to record a big score and regain the advantage, however, after more pressure from Russia they were unable to make the power-play count, giving up a steal of one point.
In the eighth end, trailing by three points, Korea engineered a chance to win the game that required Hyeji Jang to make a difficult double-takeout. Unfortunately for Korea Jang’s stone crashed on a guard and meant they could only score a single point, sending Russia to the final with a 6-4 win.
The other semi-final was a repeat of last year’s gold medal game when Canada faced Switzerland with the result going the same way. Switzerland securing the win, this time by 7-5.
After Canada opened the scoring with a single point in the first end, Switzerland replied with a score of two points in the second end then a steal of two points in the third end. In the fourth end, with Switzerland sitting three shot stones, Canada’s Laura Crocker played a fantastic raise to score a single point and keep Canada in the game.
Switzerland replied with a single point of their own in the fifth end then forced a steal of one point in the sixth end when Canada used their power-play.
Canada brought themselves back into the game in the seventh end after a quadruple takeout from Canada’s Kirk Muyres setup a score of three points to make the score 6-5 to Switzerland going into the eighth end.
In the eighth end, Switzerland’s Michele Jaeggi was left with a draw to the button for the single point, the 7-5 win and a place in this afternoon’s gold medal final.
While the semi-finals were taking place three ranking classification games were also played. In the B-Side play-off to determine the 11th and 12th placed rankings Norway defeated Italy 11-9. At the same time, in the games to determine the fifth to eighth place rankings, Japan beat Sweden 8-7 and Hungary beat Turkey 8-3.
They said it
Sven Michel; Switzerland (after 7-5 over Canada): “We just need to continue playing as good as we did today. We got better and better during the tournament so we'll just try to give everything. It's probably our last game of the season so we'll go hard for the win.”
Daniil Goriachev; Russia (after 6-4 win over Korea): “It's very important for us to win. We tried to win all the games and we're very happy right now. It's our first finals and we're going to do everything we can to win. We're going to give it all we've got.”
Results
Semi-finals: Korea 4-6 Russia; Switzerland 7-5 Canada.
Ranking classification: Hungary 8-3 Turkey; Japan 8-7 Sweden; Norway 11-9 Italy.
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