Bounce-back day for Park and Thomas at World Mixed Doubles

After losing their first game of the competition on Tuesday, Canadians Charley Thomas and Kalynn Park rebounded with two decisive wins on Wednesday at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Sochi, Russia. Against Romania’s Iulia Traila and Cristian Matau, Calgary’s Thomas and Park, with coach Jim Waite, took control from the first end and led 6-1 by the break. The Romanians, with only one win in the round robin so far, weren’t able to generate any offence in an 8-3 win for Canada. “I don’t think that any win out here is expected, but we played pretty well, and then that’s success,” said Thomas.  “I think we played a few more draws than we might normally have played, just to continue to get that feel for draw weight and the line on the draws.” Against winless Belarus, Canada opened the scoring with a single in the first and stole four ends on the way to an 8-1 victory, completing a successful bounce-back day for Park and Thomas and maintaining their first-place position in Group C. “It was one of our better games I think,” said Thomas. “We got our rocks in really good positions, and I think that was the difference. We are perfectly balanced with our two wins today.” With the two wins, Canada has clinched a spot in the quarterfinals on Saturday. On Thursday, the Canadians will finish off the round robin against Korea’s Hyein Lee and Jong-Chul Beak, who are currently tied with Spain’s Irantzu and Gontzal Garcia Vez for fourth spot in Group C with a 5-3 record. The round-robin draws for the World Mixed Doubles will run through to April 23 before the playoffs get underway. There are 30 mixed doubles teams split into three pools of 10. Selected games from the World Mixed Doubles Championship will be streamed live online. Go to the event website, wmdcc2015.curlingevents.com/, to see the games and broadcast schedule.