Canada clinches at least a tiebreaker at Capital One World Women’s
Canada’s Amber Holland has clinched a tiebreaker, at the very least, at the Capital One World Women’s Curling Championship in Esbjerg, Denmark after defeating Germany, 8-6 in her final game of the round robin.
The victory moved Canada temporarily into third place with a 7-4 mark, but several scenarios exist pending the results of the final draw this evening.
What is known for sure is that Sweden’s Anette Norberg will finish first, China’s Bingyu Wang will be second, and they will meet in the Page 1-2 game, with the winner advancing to Sunday’s final, the loser to Saturday’s semi-final.
Thursday afternoon, Holland disposed of defending champion Andrea Schöpp, but it still went down to last rock. A critical steal of two in the eighth end gave Holland a 7-5 lead, enough to hold off Schöpp the rest of the way.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I felt that we struggled a little bit in the middle ends there but we finished up strong, so that was really important,” said Holland.
“We needed to put the pressure on at the end, but she (Schöpp) put a lot of pressure on too. She made a lot of good shots but I didn’t expect any different. We’ve definitely been a lot more comfortable after our rough start. We forgot about that and went out to have some fun. We probably won’t be back to watch the evening game. We’re going out for supper. It doesn’t matter what happens elsewhere, we’ve done what we can do.”
China earned second place with a 7-5 decision over Denmark’s Lene Nielsen, finishing at 8-3, to set up the Page battle between Norberg, a two-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist, and Wang, the 2009 world champion.
“It’s so exciting to win our last round robin game and qualify for the next round,” said Wang. “I’m so happy the team works and we’re happy with each other. We did well and we hope we can keep going.”
In other games, Sweden moved to 9-1 by edging Czech Republic, 7-6 in an extra end, while Scotland’s Anna Sloan disposed of Norway’s Linn Githmark, 6-3, to wind up with a 4-7 record.
This situation for Canada is this. Denmark (6-4) meets Russia’s Anna Sidorova (6-4) while Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott (6-4) plays Norway in the final draw. Wins by Denmark and Switzerland would result in the Danes being placed third, with Canada meeting Switzerland in a tiebreaker for fourth, since Denmark beat both during the round robin, although they all wind up with 7-4 records.
However, wins by Russia and Switzerland would likely result in Canada being placed third, pending the final results of the Draw Shot Challenge, which Canada currently leads, since the teams are all 1-1 within the group while finishing at 7-4. Canada would then await the winner of a tiebreaker between Russia and Switzerland.
If Switzerland loses, though, Canada will finish fourth regardless, with either Russia or Denmark in third, since it lost to both during the round robin.