Park and Thomas just miss medals at World Mixed Doubles

Calgary’s Kalynn Park and Charley Thomas fought hard but weren’t able to catch up after falling behind in the bronze-medal game of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in Sochi, Russia, on Saturday morning, losing to Norway, 9-4.
(WCF/Alina Pavlyuchick Photo)

(WCF/Alina Pavlyuchick Photo)

Earlier in the day, Park and Thomas, with coach Jim Waite, lost a close 8-6 semifinal to Sweden’s Camilla Johansson and Per Noreen, the 2014 silver medallists. In the bronze-medal game, they fell behind early when Norway scored three with hammer in the first end and followed that with a steal of four in the second. Trailing 8-1 at the break, the Canadians got a deuce back and stole another single in six. In the seventh, trailing 8-4 without hammer, Park made a perfect hit-and-roll to lie two, but it wasn’t enough to stop Norway from taking a single and putting the game away. “Disappointing,” said Park afterwards. “We got incredibly unlucky several times, but there’s nothing we can do about that.” In the other final, 2013 champions from Hungary, Dorattya Palancsa and Zsolt Kiss won the gold medal, defeating Sweden’s Johansson and Noreen 6-5. “It’s been great,” said Park said about the overall experience of competing at the world championship for the first time. “We know (what) we have to work on going forward.” Results, news and photos can be found on the event website, at wmdcc2015.curlingevents.com.