Canada finds weight to remain unbeaten at Ford World Women’s Curling Championship

NORTH BAY, Ont. – Jennifer Jones figured out draw weight after the sixth end while EunJung Kim couldn’t, paving the way for Canada to outscore South Korea 5-0 over the final three ends for an 8-4 victory Wednesday that kept Canada unbeaten at the Ford World Women’s Curling Championship. Down 4-3 after six ends. Jones and company scored two in the seventh, stole one in eight and two in nine. In each end Jones made almost perfect draws while Kim couldn’t duplicate her. The young South Korean Olympic silver medallist was heavy with her final stone in nine to give Canada the steal and the teams shook hands. “We kind of struggled early with our draw weight but we finished strong,” said Jones. “(The ice) was probably about 10 feet heavier that it had been. It’s hard to believe you have to throw that much more weight and we kept coming up short. Eventually we began throwing harder and good things happened. Made some really good draws, some big shots when we had to, and it changed the game.” Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer, lead Dawn McEwen, alternate Shannon Birchard and coaches Wendy Morgan and Elaine Dagg-Jackson improved to 7-0 and will play Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, who is 8-0, in this evening’s draw. Speaking thought an interpreter, Kim, now 6-2, said the ice changed in the Memorial Gardens and she couldn’t find her weight to match Jones. “Jennifer Jones is a world champion and Olympic gold medallist and she was making incredible shots and had a lot of control,” Kim said, adding the loss isn’t a major concern. “The number of losses isn’t that big of a deal. We played hard, we played well so now we’ll just focus on the next game.” After trading singles through three ends Canada got a deuce in four off a delicate last-rock hit and roll by Jones. South Korea pulled even, 3-3, at the break when Kim made a pressure hit and stick for one, facing four Canadian counters. In the sixth Canada looked poised for a multiple-score end until Jones was heavy with a guard. Kim followed with an angle-raise tapback that resulted in a stolen go-ahead point for South Korea. In the seventh, though, Jones drew the corner of the button with her last rock to score two and regain the lead 5-4. Another perfect draw by Jones in the eighth led to a steal of one when Kim couldn’t push out the Canadian stone. Kim, backed by third KyeongAe Kim, second SeonYeong Kim, lead YeongMi Kim, alternate Chohi Kim and coaches MinJung Kim and KyungDoo Kim, had barely escaped with an extra-end 9-8 win over the U.S. earlier in the day. In the other afternoon games Victoria Moiseeva of Russia (5-2) scored deuces in three ends and a three in the eighth en route to a 9-5 win over Anna Kubešková of the Czech Republic (4-4); Jamie Sinclair of the U.S.(4-4) stole singles in the fifth and sixth and went on to an 8-4 win over Yilun Jiang of China (3-5); and Angelina Jensen of Denmark (2-6) stole three in the sixth for an 8-7 win over Diana Gaspari of Italy (2-6). As the 20-draw round-robin moves into its final seven draws no team is eliminated from making the six-team playoffs under this year’s new format. Even the four teams with six losses are still in contention because other than the top four teams, every other team has at least four losses. Sweden, Japan’s Tori Koana (3-4), Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher (3-5), Germany’s Daniela Jentsch (1-6) and Scotland’s Hannah Fleming (2-6) had the afternoon byes. The 2018 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship continues with the evening draw at 7 p.m. ET. Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2018 Ford World Women’s are available at www.worldcurling.org/wwcc2018/livescores TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of Canada’s games at the 2018 Ford World Women’s. Go to www.tsn.ca/2017-18-curling-broadcast-schedule-1.593081 for the complete schedule. For ticket information for the 2018 Ford World Women’s, go to www.curling.ca/2018worldwomen/tickets/ This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2018worldwomen/?lang=fr