Day 2 World Wheelchair Championship Qualification

Lohja, Finland
November 4, 2012

 

Team Poland at WWhCQ 2012 Photo: WCF/Katja Kiiskinen

Hosts Finland and Italy remain unbeaten after day 2 of the World Wheelchair Curling Qualification event on three wins and no losses. The new team line-up from Italy, skipped by Paolo Ioriatti, had a resounding 12-0 win over newcomers Turkey in the morning and then beat Latvia 7-2 in the evening session.

Finland met Poland in the morning round and, after being tied 7-7 before the last end, the Finns scored two important points to secure a 9-7 win. In their second game of the day, Finland played against the experienced German team skipped by Jens Jäger, which had lost both of their first two games. This same German team finished fourth at the qualification event last year.

Germany started very well against Finland, but Finnish lead Tuomo Aarnikka was able to respond to Caren Totzauer’s excellent first shots and the game remained even. Going into the eighth end, the game was tied 5-5. Finland’s 4th player Markku Karjalainen succeeded with a crucial last shot to seal an important 6-5 win.

The young Latvian team skipped by Ojars Briedis provided the biggest surprise of day 2 by beating Norway in a very tight game in the afternoon. Latvia won 6-5 by stealing two points in the last end. While Latvia had a strong start in their game against Italy, the game escaped from them in the fourth end when Italy took four points for a 5-1 lead.

Full results from the three rounds of play on Sunday can be seen here:
www.curling.fi/en/competitions/leagues/8690

Standings after Day 2 (games played/wins-losses):

Finland 3/3-0
Italy 3/3-0
Czech Republic 4/3-1
Japan 4/3-1
Norway 4/3-1
Latvia 3/2-1
Switzerland 4/2-2
Germany 4/1-3
Poland 3/0-3
Denmark 4/0-4
Turkey 4/04

The World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2013 will take place at the Ice Cube Curling Center, Sochi, Russia, from 16-23 February. www.wwhcc2013.curlingevents.com

Russia, Korea, China, Slovakia, USA, Scotland, Canada and Sweden have already qualified for this event based on the final ranking at the 2012 event. The 2013 World Championships will be the last opportunity for nations to gather qualification points for the Wheelchair Curling Competition at the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

For the list of points visit www.worldcurling.org/curling-at-the-paralympics

The schedule of play and team line-ups for this event are available online at: www.worldcurling.org/world-wheelchair-curling-qualification-2012

Results and LIVE webcasting will be provided on the Finnish Curling Association website:
www.curling.fi/en/competitions/leagues/8690
www.curling.fi/en/competitions/curling-channel
World Curling Federation Wheelchair Curling Events Facebook:
Go hit ‘like’ to keep updated:
www.facebook.com/WorldWheelchairCurlingChampionships