Sweden inching away at Capital One World Women’s

Although playing for the first time with three young teammates, Sweden’s veteran Anette Norberg appears to be rounding into the form which won her two Olympic gold medals and world championships in the last decade. Wednesday morning at the Capital One World Women’s Curling Championship in Esbjerg, Denmark, Norberg’s team of Cissi Östlund, Sara Carlsson and Lotta Lennartsson improved to 7-1 with a hard-fought 9-8 extra end decision over Mirjam Ott of Switzerland, creating a two-game buffer over its nearest rivals. The victory wasn’t easy, as Norberg clawed her way back from an early 3-1 deficit, but was still down 5-4 after five ends. However, a single in the sixth, followed by steals of a deuce in the seventh and a single in the eighth seemed to turn the tide in her favour. But, the resilient Ott cut the margin to one, 8-7 after a pair in the ninth, then stole one in the 10th, before losing in the extra. In other Draw 12 games, Denmark (Lene Nielsen) joined Switzerland at 5-3, with a 7-4 win over Korea (Mi-Sung Shin), as did Russia (Anna Sidorova), which outlasted Germany’s Andrea Schöpp, the defending champion, 5-3. Canada’s Amber Holland and China’s Bingyu Wang, both with morning byes, are next with 4-3 records. Meanwhile, United States, skipped by Patti Lank, kept its playoff hopes alive, edging Norway’s Linn Githmark, 6-5 in an extra end to even its record at 4-4. Holland’s fate may very well be decided by her two matches today – an upcoming one against Switzerland (9:00 am, live on TSN), then a battle with Sweden in the evening draw.