World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2015 Session 8

 

Lohja, Finland
February 11, 2015

China will play Russia in the Page 1v2 Playoff Photo © WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik

China joined Russia in the Page play-offs following the eighth session of play at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2015 being played at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.
Their win against Norway plus Russia’s win against Germany means that Russia will play China in the Page 1v2 play-off on Thursday afternoon.
A score of three points in the fourth end helped them on their way to a 5-1 victory after seven ends of play.
After this game, China skip HaiTao Wang said: “Because of how we’ve been playing this week we were confident that we were going to qualify and we are very happy that we have. This morning, Norway made some mistakes that we were able to take advantage of – that was the key to getting our win.”
Several other teams are still in with a chance of qualifying for the play-offs, two of which are Scotland and the USA who both went head to head in session eight.
Scotland needed a win to keep their play-off hopes alive and they achieved this as they edged their opponents 4-2 in a game which only included single point scores throughout.
After their win, Scotland skip Aileen Neilson said: “Coming out this morning we knew that we had to win, so we’re obviously delighted but it was still a close game. It went right down to nearly the last stone so we had to dig deep. We knew we had to put a win on the board and we’re so happy that we have!”
Hosts Finland are also still in the running for the play-offs but did themselves no favours after losing out to Scandinavian neighbours Sweden.
Sweden picked up a crucial score of three points in the third end then followed that up by stealing two points in the fourth end to lead 6-1 by the fourth end break.
A score of two points in the eighth secured their 8-4 victory, a win that could prove crucial as Sweden look to avoid dropping down into the World Wheelchair Curling Qualification event.
Germany are another team in danger of being relegated to that event and found it tough going against a Russian team who had yet to lose a game at this Championship.
It didn’t start well for Germany as Russia skip Andrey Smirnov was left with a draw into the house for three points in the first end.
From there on Russia dominated the game as they went on to win 10-1, Russia’s eighth win so far.
Slovakia also picked up a crucial win against reigning Paralympic and world champions Canada.