Sweden on a roll at Capital One World Women’s

Sweden, skipped by two-time Olympic gold medallist Anette Norberg of Härnosänd, has put a little distance between itself and its competitors at the Capital One World Women’s Curling Championship in Esbjerg, Denmark. In a clash between two-time world champions, Norberg bested Germany’s Andrea Schöpp of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the defending champion, 7-5 in the 10th draw Tuesday afternoon to improve to 6-1. Norberg has teamed up with three youngsters this season…Cissi Östlund, Sara Carlsson and Lotta Lennartson, all of whom competed in last year’s Ford World Women’s in Swift Current, Saskatchewan and did well, eventually finishing fourth in their debut. “I think it’s an advantage that I know Andrea (Schöpp) so well but we didn’t play the game we would like to play,” said Norberg. “This was really my first good game. The whole team did very well. “We’re getting there – the girls have been great so far, but I haven’t played as well as I can. But now I’m starting to get there as well. When we are all playing good, we are unbeatable, I think. We have a good mixture in the team and it works well. Actually, they take care of me. I don’t take care of them. I think we can win this week.” In other games, United States, skipped by Patti Lank of Lewiston, New York, scored an 8-6 decision over Korea’s Mi-Sung Shin. Switzerland, with Mirjam Ott of Davos at the controls, outlasted Russia, 9-7 in an extra end, after stealing three in the ninth end to take the lead. Russia was skipped by Anna Sidorova, as regular skip Liudmila Privivkova sat out. And host Denmark, skipped by Lene Nielsen of Hvidovre, got back on the winning track with an 8-3 pounding of Norway’s Linn Githmark. “We got our team back together after our loss this morning and it’s really great to have something like this,” said Nielsen. “I’ve played her (Githmark) so many times, so I know how to play her. I think I messed up on my first shot in the last (end), so I just played the second with a curl – I knew the ice would curl. “This is more fun than the first two days. The home support is great. People are yelling and clapping when we do something good…and bad.” Behind Sweden are China and Switzerland at 4-2, Denmark is 4-3, Canada, Russia, Scotland and the United States are 3-3, Germany and Norway are 3-4, Czech Republic is 2-4 and Korea is 0-6. Canada’s Amber Holland faces the United States in the next draw, live on TSN at 2:00 pm ET.