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Saturday, February 23, 2013

WCF Offical Release -World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2013 – GOLD for Canada


CURLING: World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2013 – GOLD for Canada

 

For immediate release: 23 February 2013

 

Final Qualification Points for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games Wheelchair Curling Competition in red!

Sochi, Russia – Canada won its third World Wheelchair Curling Championship title on Saturday beating Sweden 4-3 in a tightly-fought final.

Playing at the Ice Cube Curling Center, venue for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Canada and Sweden ceded little ground in their game and restricted each other to single points. In the eighth end, Canadian Skip Jim Armstrong made a raise to a Swedish stone in the four foot. Swedish Skip Jalle Jungnell tried a hit and roll and was wide and the victory was Canada’s.

Linescore

SWE*01010100-3

CAN  10101001-4
 
Team Canada was skipped by Jim Armstrong with Dennis Thiessen (third), Ina Forrest (second), Sonja Gaudet (lead) and Mark Ideson as alternate.

Sweden skipped by Jalle Jungnell with Glenn Ikonen (third), Patrick Kallin (second), Kicki Ulander (lead) and Gert Erlandsson as alternate had to settle for silver for the second time in the history of the event. Jungnell met Armstrong in the 2009 final. Armstrong skipped Canada to gold against Scotland in 2011.

 
“It was a great game,” declared Armstrong, “I think it was probably one of the best wheelchair curling games ever, very entertaining and obviously very close. Very exciting and really what our sport needs. It speaks well for the facility, it’s a new facility. I really think Sochi should be proud. Their volunteers are absolutely unbelievable. It’s a tremendous experience and I am really looking forward to having the opportunity to come back next year.”

“We gave ourselves an opportunity,” said Jungnell afterwards. “That was our goal. The worse thing that could happen was that we have an open house and that we have nothing to do. With my last stone we were so concerned about not hitting the stone directly. I could not jam it or he [Armstrong] would draw against it. I had to roll over, so we took a little more ice...and ah! it was just too much!”

Earlier on Saturday, China won the Bronze medal game beating the USA 6-5.

 It is the second year in a row that this Chinese team – Skip Haitao Wang, Wei Liu (third), Qiang Zhang (second), Guangqin Xu (lead) and their alternate Jun He have won bronze. They won bronze in Chuncheon City, Korea last year.

 The USA skipped by Patrick McDonald with David Palmer (third), Jimmy Joseph (second), Penny Greely (lead) and Meghan Line (alternate) finish the event in fourth place.

 The USA opened the score in the first end taking two points. The two teams traded single points over the next four ends. With the score 4-2 going into the sixth end, the Chinese got their break with an open hit for two to tie the game 4-4. The USA only managed a single point in the 7th end. The Chinese kept the 8th end clean and Skip Haitao Wang had clear takeout on a US shot stone to score two and win the game.

 Linescore

USA* 20101010-5

CHN  01010202-6

 
Chinese skip Haitao Wang said he was extremely happy to win the game. He said the emotion of it all had made him cry. He explained that his team was very nervous going into the game as the USA had already beaten them twice - once the round robin and again in the 3v4 playoff.

Patrick McDonald USA Skip: “We came and we played, we trained really hard. After the fourth end break they turned up the heat. They made it really difficult. The best team won.”

 
Final Standings

1. CAN - Canada (Gold)

2. SWE – Sweden (Silver)

3. CHN – China (Bronze)

4. USA - USA

5. RUS – Russia

6. SCO – Scotland

7. SVK – Slovakia

8. FIN – Finland

9. KOR – Korea

10. NOR – Norway
 

The ten WCF Member Assocations above have qualified their National Paralympic Committe for the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games Wheelchair Curling Competition in Sochi, Russia (7-16 March 2014).

Final qualification point totals over the 2011, 2012 and 2013 World Championships are:

1.    Canada 28

2.    Russia* 25

3.    China 22

4.    Sweden 18

5.    USA 18

6.    Great Britain**18

7.    Korea 17

8.    Slovakia 11

9.    Norway 11

10.  Finland 3

* Russia as host country for the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games has guaranteed qualification.

** Points for Great Britain are gained by Scotland at World Wheelchair Curling Championships.

 
Jalle Jungnell

Jalle Jungnell, was awarded the 2013 World Wheelchair Curling Championship Sportsmanship award.  Jungnell was nominated by his fellow competitors. They were all invited to nominate a player at the event who, in their view, best exemplified the traditional values of skill, honesty, fair play, sportsmanship and friendship. (Jungnell won the award 2003 & 2005)

 
To see the previous recipients of the award visit:


 

Results, news and photos from the World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2013 can be seen here on the event website: http://wwhcc2013.curlingevents.com

Linecores and shot by shot here: http://wwhcc2013.curlingevents.com/livescores

Video highlights of the event can be seen here: http://wwhcc2013.curlingevents.com/video

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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