CURLING: World Wheelchair Curling Championship
2013 – Day 7 UPDATE
Standings
SWE – Sweden (to play Final/Gold Medal Game)
CAN - Canada (to play Final/Gold Medal Game)
USA – USA (to play Bronze Medal Game)
CHN – China (to play Bronze Medal Game)
5. RUS – Russia
6. SCO – Scotland
7. SVK – Slovakia
8. FIN – Finland
9. KOR – Korea
10. NOR – Norway
Sochi, Russia – Sweden and Canada will play the
final of the World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2013 in Sochi, Russia, as
Canada beat USA 6-3 in the semifinal on Friday night.
Earlier, Sweden secured their place in the gold
medal game scheduled for 15:30 local time on Saturday by beating Canada 6-5 in
the 1v2 playoff of the event at the Ice Cube Curling Center.
USA faces a rematch against China for the
bronze medals on Saturday morning at 09:30 local. USA won the 3v4 playoff game
against China 8-4 to get into the semifinal.
It was a tight 1v2 playoff game between Sweden
and Canada. The key moment came in the sixth end when Swedish skip Jalle Jungnell
produced an excellent promotion takeout to score two and lead 5-3. In the
seventh end, Jungnell missed two attempted draws and left Canadian skip Jim
Armstrong with a draw for two to tie the game at 5-5. In the eighth end, Sweden
was able to hit and roll a stone into the four foot under Canadian cover.
Armstrong was unable to move it. Jungnell didn’t need to play his last stone
taking the one point for a 6-5 win.
The 3v4 game was more one sided. China stole
their way into the game but from the third end the USA came back and were able
to level the score at 3-3 and went on to steal a further five points over the
next three ends. China managed to get one in the seventh end and was run out of
stones in the eighth for an 8-4 final score.
Earlier China had eliminated hosts and 2012
Champions Russia in a tiebreaker game 8-3.
Canadian Skip Jim Armstrong on winning their
semifinal game against USA: “We just tried to take advantage early. The ice is a little tricky and
if you have got to come from behind, it is a very tough game.”
“At the end of the day it’s a game, if you
can’t enjoy it, there’s no sense in being here. We’re here to win, but we’re
also here to enjoy the game!”
“We’ve got a big game tomorrow and Sweden have
a history of playing very well against us in big games. They’ve owned us this
week, but I think it is our turn.”
USA Skip Patrick McDonald after semifinal: “Jim’s been curling longer than
I’ve been alive! In the first game we were timid and we didn’t take chances. We
had a solid game against China. We carried that confidence over and the shots
that we were going after needed to be done to put pressure on a team like that
[Canada].”
Swedish skip Jalle Jungnell on their 1v2
playoff win: “This
game was very important because we played well all week. We were in the final
four but we could still end up fourth. But now we know that we have a medal.
It’s a fantastic feeling.”
“We have set our strategy for playing Canada
and I think it is also the Swedish mentality when we meet a very good team, we
play better, we are motivated I think. We always have a problem with the less
good teams!”
“I still think that Canada is the most complete
team. They are professional and a very good team. But we have had a very good
week and it is possible for us to win and beat them. I have seen it – we’ve
done it twice now! Of course we will try to win but is very close. It could be
the US too, they are a very very good team also.”
Jungnell on his strategy going into the 8th
end tied with hammer:
“To have it open, no stones in front of the house of course that’s the normal
strategy and we would just try to clean it up. But we got some good opportunities
and we were lucky that he [Canadian Skip Jim Armstrong] made a draw and we
could use that stone to roll and hide but it is always nerve-wracking.”
Canadian Skip Jim Armstrong after the 1v2 game
on his strategy going into the 8th end tied without hammer: “We certainly wanted to get some
rocks in play and plug up the centre which we managed to do. We had our
opportunity, we had our rock on the button and we were throwing a guard and
just got a little wide and didn’t cover. They made a great hit and roll and
from then I was left trying to chase them. On my last one, it was kind of iffy
if in fact there was enough room. We would’ve had to move all three rocks and
carry through the third one through to the button. We tried it. There wasn’t
really much in the way of another option so we gave it a whirl and just didn’t
make it.”
Patrick McDonald on winning the 3v4 playoff
game: “Last night
we had a meeting [after losing their game to Scotland] I was coming up short on
everything and I was missing a couple of key parts of my pre-shot routine.
First three ends [of their game against China] we had some misses there. They
[China] capitalised on it and after that we got into a groove and we hit
everything. I can’t say enough about the rest of the guys, they set up stuff
and made my shots easy and made it tough for them to get some in.”
Anton Batugin, Coach of Team Russia after his
team lost the tiebreaker against China: “the team has faced a lot of pressure this
week. To be a champion is really a big responsibility and I think my guys had a
lot on their minds. We will reflect on our performance and draw experience from
this for the next time. Next time it will be better. Fifth place for us is the
minimum. It is still a good step to be on for next year.”
Live coverage on Saturday 23 February of the BRONZE (0930 local) and
GOLD (1530 local) medal games can be viewed worldwide here: http://russiasport.ru
The Bronze and Gold medal games scheduled for 09:30
and 15:30 local time (MSK – Moscow Standard Time) on Saturday 23rd.
Further qualification points for the 2014
Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia will be awarded at the end of this
year’s world championship. Only ten teams will qualify for the Games. For more
information visit: http://www.worldcurling.org/curling-at-the-paralympics
Results, news and photos from the World
Wheelchair Curling Championship 2013 can be seen here on the event website: http://wwhcc2013.curlingevents.com
Follow live scores and shot by shot
here: http://wwhcc2013.curlingevents.com/livescores
World
Curling Federation Wheelchair Curling Events Facebook: Go hit ‘like’ to keep
updated: http://www.facebook.com/WorldWheelchairCurlingChampionships
END
Notes to Editors
About Wheelchair Curling:
·
Wheelchair
curling is similar in many ways to its able-bodied parent game, except that no
sweeping takes place, and each game consists of eight instead of ten ends.
·
More
information about Wheelchair Curling see: http://www.worldcurling.org/wheelchair-curling
and http://www.worldcurling.org/curling-at-the-paralympics
About
the World Curling Federation:
- The World
Curling Federation (WCF) is the International Sport Federation governing
the Olympic Winter Sport of Curling and the Paralympic Winter Sport of
Wheelchair Curling.
·
The WCF represents curling internationally by facilitating the
co-operation and mutual understanding of a network of 50 member associations
·
The
WCF facilitates the growth of curling, which is carried out through a series of
World Championship competitions and official WCF events, camps and courses and
financial support programmes.
- The WCF
is one of seven International Sports Federations currently part of the
Winter Olympic Programme.
- For more
information visit http://www.worldcurling.org
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