Canada at top of leaderboard after Day 2 of worlds

It was a long but productive day for Canada at the 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship at Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, South Korea, as the team finds itself tied for first place in the tournament.

Team Canada, consisting of skip and lead-rock thrower Mark Ideson, fourth Jon Thurston, third Ina Forrest, second Gil Dash, alternate Chrissy Molnar, head coach Mick Lizmore, and team leader Kyle Paquette, got off to a slow start in this morning’s game against Slovakia, skipped by Radoslav Duris, until a hit for three in the seventh end gave them a one-point edge coming home.

In the eighth, Slovakian fourth Peter Zatko had a hit for two to win but wrecked on a guard, leaving the counting Canadian rock untouched and resulting in a 6-4 win for Canada.

Ideson admitted the win was scrappy but added that ice conditions have changed since the pre-event practice a couple days ago.

“We found it a bit tricky out there,” he said. “Trickier to read the ice, trickier to find our weight—but you know what, you’ve got to have those games and find a way to get it done. It was a long game, and we got a little help from our opponent in the end, but we found a way to get the win.”

In its second game of the day against Italy, skipped by Egidio Marchese, Canada applied pressure on and strung together consecutive steals in the fourth and fifth ends, and ultimately emerged victorious in an 8-3 win. Ideson said the team used the break between games to reflect on their strengths.

“The messaging was just to simplify things,” he said. “We wanted to just try to play our game­—which is a bit more conservative—and I think we did that well tonight.”

Now, Canada prepares for what could be its biggest battle of the round robin: Haitao Wang and the defending gold medalists from China.

“They’re an easy team to get ready for because they’re the best in the world and we’ve got to bring our best to play against them,” said Ideson. “It’s always a great game whenever we play them and it’s always fun. It’s exciting, it’s loud, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Four teams, including Canada, are carrying perfect 3-0 records into Day 3: China, Norway (skip Jostein Stordahl), and Latvia (skip Ojars Briedis). Conversely, Estonia (skip Ain Villau), Scotland (skip Hugh Nibloe), Czechia (skip Dana Selnekovicova), Sweden (Viljo Petersson-Dahl), and the United States (Matthew Thums) are winless at 0-3. Italy, Slovakia, and Korea (Hyeonchul Lee) all sit at 2-1.

Tomorrow’s schedule sees the Canadians face China (Monday, 12 a.m. ET) and Estonia (Monday, 5 a.m. ET).

The top six teams from the round robin advance to the playoffs, with the top two receiving a bye while the remaining four play in the first round. The gold and bronze medal games will take place Friday, March 8 at 9 p.m. ET.

All games will be available to watch on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@curling1.

For live scores, standings, and statistics for the 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship, go to https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wwhcc/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/category-all-posts-fr/?lang=fr.