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:
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.
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
