Live Blog: Day three at the WWCC
Japan's Fujisawa Satsuki © WCF / Jeffrey Au 2023
We'll be back tomorrow
What a fantastic day of curling. Ready for another three draws? Then join us tomorrow for day four.
Until then, we’ll leave you with some of the best shots the action on ice today. God natt.
Standings at the end of day three
Here’s the standings after three days of round-robin play in Sandviken#Curling #WWCC2023 pic.twitter.com/ONtzB3mtgf
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Results from session eight
RESULTS | Session 8⃣#Curling #WWCC2023 pic.twitter.com/Q1l0nfqBVh
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Last-end heartbreak
Another extra end, another gutting defeat for New Zealand as they fall 6-5 to Italy.
A second 11th end in a day but Bridget Becker’s team are denied a historic first-ever World Women’s Curling Championship victory. So close – but they’ll come again!
On a roll
That first loss seems like a long time ago now. Canada make it four wins in a row and the smiles from the team says it all. Here’s how Kerri Einarson assessed her rink’s performance.
“I thought we played well again,” she said. “We are catching on to the ice and getting used to it quickly. We had some really good stone placements, despite some execution errors but we put some good pressure on them.”
USA get W
It’s been a tough couple of days for Tabitha Peterson’s rink but they’ve come back to the Göransson Arena tonight determined to get that winning feeling back.
A steal of three in the penultimate end seals the deal as they win 11-4 over Türkiye. Let’s hear from the United States skip…
“We’re playing good and have had some really close games that could have gone either way,” said Peterson. “We have lots of games ahead so we just have to keep pushing. The spirit is high and we need to keep adapting to the ice. Getting off to a strong start is really helpful, which we didn’t do against Japan yesterday and it cost us.”
Canada lead into final end
A two-point advantage with the hammer is the situation for Canada heading into the tenth end. The Scots have stolen in nine ends in their previous four games before tonight – can they find a tenth at the death?
Win #3 for Japan
That’ll do nicely for Japan.
Norway have had a good week so far so a 10-3 victory for Team Fujisawa Satsuki is no mean feat. That’s three in a row and they progress to a 3-2 record.
Business end
Norway are struggling to unravel Japan at the minute, with Fujisawa Satsuki’s rink registering three-straight stolen ends to extend their advantage to 7-3 after eight. It appears the two-time Olympic medallists in Japan have found their groove in Sandviken. Is a third consecutive win on the cards here?
Persinger in
In case you missed it, Vicky Persinger has slid in to second in place of Becca Hamilton for United States in tonight’s game. They currently lead 6-4 against Türkiye.
Battles on ice
Nothing more than a couple of points splits all four match-ups on ice with four ends to play.
Most of these teams have played twice today, which is not unusual for curling – but under the pressure of a LGT World Women’s Curling Championship, against top competition and after a long day, this is when those extra five minutes in practice begins to pay dividends. Don’t discount experience, too.
Half-time scores
Italy 2-2 New Zealand
Türkiye 3-6 United States
Norway 3-2 Japan
Scotland 5-6 Canada
States ahead
Tabitha Peterson and her United States rink have suffered a few tightly fought losses already this week. Nevertheless, it’s a long week in Sandviken, and if history repeats itself, the race for the play-off spots will be wide open.
So the American quartet will be pleased with their start against Türkiye, as they lead 6-1 after four ends. Three members of this team — skip Peterson, her sister Tara and Becca Hamilton, took world bronze in 2021.
Scotland respond
Conceding four in the opening end hasn’t deterred Scotland at all! The chat between ends was to try and set up a score of two – so you can see why Rebecca Morrison and co look so pleased after bagging a four-ender in response.
Whatever you can do…
Wow! 😱 Rebecca Morrison’s throw is well managed by the Scotland 🏴 front end to just pass the guard and hit out the red for a big four points.
Watch live on the Curling Channel at https://t.co/fy3vfdBx89#WWCC2023 #curling pic.twitter.com/sAhT8lMRL0
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Italy start well
Italy will be hoping to get back into the winning groove against New Zealand after suffering back-to-back defeats. A deuce to follow a blanked opening end will certainly help achieve that goal. 
Shot watch
A lovely start for Canada…
It’s a dream start for Canada 🇨🇦 as Kerri Einarson makes a short raise take-out for a massive four points. 🤩
Watch live on the Curling Channel at https://t.co/fy3vfdBx89#WWCC2023 #curling pic.twitter.com/oULmswyrUW
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Birchard's idol
Commentating on Scotland v Canada is the well-appointed pair of Olympic gold medallists, Rhona Howie and Kevin Martin. The former reveals to the 2008 world champion that Shannon Birchard’s player bio says he is her sporting idol.
“I wondered why I liked her so much,” he replies.
At the same time, third Gina Aitkin of Scotland takes a hard tumble to the ice pre-sweep but recovers in time to help guide Sophie Sinclair’s stone to the centre-guard position. The pair share a chuckle (or two). Curling carnage.
Jubilant Japan
Show us a team which look as happy as Japan do when they win…we’ll wait. Fujisawa Satsuki’s rink are up against Norway this evening – the first time the Japan skip will face off against Marianne Roervik’s rink.
On the mic
It has been a while for Sander Roelvag and I. Last game together on the mic was #olympic mens final. The band is back for Japan 🇯🇵 vs Norway 🇳🇴 at the #wwcc2023. Tune in for a great game. https://t.co/EvOtmnabXd pic.twitter.com/p9diuqES4f
— Luke Coley (@ColeysNotes) March 20, 2023
We're back
Welcome back to the live blog at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship. Thanks for joining us.
There’s a cracking draw coming up, let’s see the match-ups…
Italy v New Zealand
Türkiye v United States
Norway v Japan
Scotland v Canada
Which game whets your appetite the most?
See you shortly
We have another session coming up with four mouth-watering contests. Be sure to join us in just over an hour or so!
Results from session seven
RESULTS | Session 7⃣#Curling #WWCC2023 pic.twitter.com/KCBfiULA8s
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Korea double up
And with a straight-forward hit, Korea collect a second triumph on Monday by defeating Scotland 6-4 and close out the session. Smiles on the Korean foursome’s faces – and why wouldn’t there be? That progresses their record to 3-2 in Sandviken. As it stands, Ha Seungyoun’s rink will slot in to third place in the standings.
How does the skip feel?
“Very happy [with the win],” she said. “But we don’t want to get too excited and will try and keep our focus on picking up more wins in the round robin.
“This is a difficult competition and there’s never an easy game. We are learning to cope with these circumstances every game.”
Norway take W
A strong display from Norway gives them a 7-3 victory over Denmark on Sheet D. In the end, Madeleine Dupont’s rink run out of stones and offer handshakes.
Marianne Roervik and co’s record now stands at 3-1 – they’ll return for this evening’s session to play Japan.
“Another really good performance,” said Roervik. “It was close against Canada yesterday but we responded well today. We played the scoreboard well and picked our opportunities.”
Asked by Joanne Courtney how she developed such powerful shots, she said: “I train and practice a lot. It’s a big weapon to have those heavy shots.”
Hasselborg: Crowd is our fifth player
And here’s what Anna Hasselborg had to say about her team’s 7-2 win over Türkiye.
“Very pumped to get the win,” said the Swedish skip. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have a great performance against Switzerland last time out – but today we came out here and played solid from the start.
“Having the crowd cheering us on is like having a fifth player out there – it’s such an amazing feeling. It gives us extra energy, which is so helpful because this is a long week.”
Back to winning ways
It was a difficult Sunday on the ice for Sweden but they’ve bounced back positively to beat Türkiye 7-2 this afternoon. A score of three in the seventh end pulled them away and they can now prepare for tomorrow’s two games.
Shot watch
Still plenty of curling left in this session. Norway are currently in charge on Sheet D against Denmark, leading 6-2, but Madeleine Dupont’s rink has the hammer in the even eighth end. Can they take advantage?
Mille Haslev Nordbye 🇳🇴 is playing a fantastic seventh end as she gets the side of the guard for a slash double with her second stone. 🙌
Watch live on the Curling Channel at https://t.co/fy3vfdBx89#WWCC2023 #curling pic.twitter.com/GeEodjRMxi
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Numbers don't interest me, says Tirinzoni
Speaking after her team’s 9-1 win over Germany, Switzerland skip Silvana Tirinzoni was full of praise for her teammates.
“All the credit goes to the front end with Carole [Howald] and Briar [Schwaller-Hürlimann],” she said. “They have adapted so well to Alina and me. It was not easy to step into Melanie [Barbezat] and Esther [Neuenschwander]’s shoes but they’ve done amazingly.”
On the subject of statistics, Tirinzoni is happy to keep it simple, saying: “The numbers don’t interest me. I know how good or bad I play. Sometimes it is important to see weaknesses in the other teams, so we study their percentages, but not much of ours.”
Well Howald and Alina Paetz’s perfect games, to add to Schwaller-Hürlimann’s yesterday, is definitely putting them in good stead for the rest of the week.
Switzerland stay unbeaten
A successful day at the office for Switzerland – they can go back to the hotel and rest after winning 9-1 against Germany in their only match today. That’s five victories from as many games, and whatever happens, they’ll end day three on top of the standings. Top work.
Sweden in the house (pun intended)
Sweden are fully loving hosting the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship for the first time in 19 years. Anna Hasselborg and co said on the weekend how amazing it is to perform in front of a home crowd. They currently lead Türkiye 3-2 after six ends.
Who's in charge at the break?
Five ends down, five to go. Let’s take a look at the scoreboards across the ice.
Korea 2-2 Scotland
Switzerland 9-0 Germany
Sweden 3-2 Türkiye
Norway 5-1 Denmark
Switzerland on a roll
A list of superlatives for Switzerland might well fill up a newspaper, to be honest. Yesterday’s two wins took their record at the worlds to 33 wins from their previous 34 matches – they really are the immoveable object and an unstoppable force at this moment in time.
A 7-0 lead over Germany after four ends, with three consecutive steals, puts them in charge before the interval. Alina Paetz and Carole Howald are both throwing at 100%.
Shot watch
Beautifully done by Mathilde Halse 🇩🇰 who hits and gets a neat roll on top of the other red. 👌
Watch live on the Curling Channel at https://t.co/fy3vfdBx89#WWCC2023 #curling pic.twitter.com/Bggjwyyifa
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Let's get to know...Germany
With 13 teams competing in Sandviken, let’s take a deep dive into some of the athletes on display. First up, Germany…
Skip: Daniela Jentsch
From a strong curling heritage, Daniela has been a regular on the curling circuit for a while now. The 41-year-old skip is a big fan of other sports, too – including tennis and cycling. A two-time European bronze medallist, Jentsch has finished ninth in the past three World Women’s Curling Championships.
Third: Emira Abbes
Born and raised in Germany’s curling capital Fuessen, Abbes has been a mainstay in the Germany rink for a while now. This is the vice-skip’s fifth appearance at the event.
Second: Lena Kapp
Another member of the rink with rich pedigree on the ice, Lena Kapp is a psychology student from Munich. A fan of hiking and travelling, Kapp picked up curling when she was 10 years old. Now at 22, she is playing in her first LGT World Women’s Curling Championship.
Lead: Analena Jentsch
Younger sister of the skip, Analena, says she is “crazy about dogs”. The 25-year-old lead is hoping to help her team improve on successive ninth-position finishes in Sandviken.
Alternate: Pia-Lisa Schöll
In contrast to Analena, Pia-Lisa is a big lover of cats and joins the team here as alternate. From Oberstdorf, Schöll works as a psychologist away from the rink.
Triple deuces
Switzerland (v Germany), Sweden (v Türkiye) and Norway (v Denmark) have all grabbed two points from their opening ends. Korea buck the trend as they’re forced to take one against Scotland.
How do they face up?
Let’s dig into the history books.
Marianne Roervik has traded stones against Madeleine Dupont for a dozen years now, facing one another on five separate occasions. It is the Danish rink who have the slight head-to-head edge over their Scandinavian rivals, winning three of their five games – the last time being at this season’s Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships.
Last October saw the first and only face-off between Ha Seungyoun’s Korean rink and Rebecca Morrison’s Scottish quartet. It was the Scots that ran out winners that time.
Another head-to-head which stretches back 12 years is between skips Silvana Tirinzoni (Switzerland) and Daniela Jentsch (Germany). The defending champions lead 13-4 in past encounters – but Jentsch did get the better of Tirinzoni at World Women’s Curling Championship in 2019, the year the Swiss rink became world champions.
And finally, Sweden’s Team Hasselborg has won all five matches against Türkiye’s Team Dilsat Yildiz in the past. Can Yildiz beat them in their own backyard? Let’s find out…
Coming up
Here we go again!
Session 7⃣ begins in an hour
🇰🇷 Korea v Scotland 🏴
🇨🇭 Switzerland v Germany 🇩🇪
🇸🇪 Sweden v Türkiye 🇹🇷
🇳🇴 Norway v Denmark 🇩🇰🕑: 2 pm (CET)
Blog: https://t.co/fMBfmxZ0l3
Streaming/broadcast: https://t.co/fy3vfdBx89📸 WCF / @Fishersnaps#Curling #WWCC2023 pic.twitter.com/6D8fdJnD5C
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Results from session six
RESULTS | Session 6⃣#Curling #WWCC2023 pic.twitter.com/tUsHnscH2R
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Korea steal and win
With only 15 seconds remaining on the shot clock, Bridget Becker rushes back and can’t quite make the hit. So close to a maiden victory they could have smelt it.
Props to Korea at the end there. From 5-0 down to winning 8-7 is a terrific fightback.
Mic on
Just a few stones are left to be thrown and the house looks busy again. New Zealand are lying one and skip Bridget Becker opts for what she calls the “cautious” option and throws a guard in place.
Moments before she pushes off the hack, she jokingly mutters: “How do I throw up a guard again?”
Extra end coming
And we are heading into an 11th end.
The packed house made it very difficult for New Zealand to make a dent with their final stone, compounded by a shot clock close to timing out. A steal of one for Korea ties things up but Bridget Becker keeps control of the hammer for New Zealand.
History beckons
The only game left on ice is Korea v New Zealand – and it is going right to the wire. Can New Zealand claim a first-ever win at a LGT World Women’s Curling Championship? They lead 7-6, with the hammer in hand. It’s a busy house…
Einarson: Our best performance so far
“We wanted to play a little better than yesterday and we came out to do just that,” said Canada skip Kerri Einarson after improving her team’s record to 3-1 in Sandviken.
“We had a really good team game – probably our best yet. The speed of the ice was a little faster but we figured it out quickly. We forced some misses from Italy and made good shots ourselves.
“The jet lag has been tough to adjust to. We were in Japan earlier this season which gave us a taste of just that.”
Canada victorious
And that’s win number three for Canada. Some really strong play for Team Kerri Einarson this morning – they made it difficult for Italy to score throughout. A steal of two in the ninth end put them just out of reach.
Fujisawa: We kept our focus
The infectious smile of Fujisawa Satsuki is the epitome of curling’s spirit. Speaking to us after the win over United States, the Japan skip felt like their great start made the difference today.
“We tried to keep our focus and it seemed to work today,” she said. “The ice reacted a little bit different to yesterday and we felt more attuned with our draw weight.
“We will have a good rest now and refresh our minds ahead of tonight’s match.”
First win of the morning
That confidence boost from yesterday’s victory has definitely made a difference to this Japan outfit. The experienced quartet looked assured in every possible way this morning and it does the trick as they beat United States 8-3 in eight ends. Team Fujisawa Satsuki’s record improves to 2-2 and they’ll return to face Norway tonight.
We’ll hear from the cheery skip shortly.
📸 Morning snaps
Throwback to 2010
Let’s hop into our DeLorean and head back to Saskatchewan, Canada in 2010 for today’s throwback. The final 13 years ago was fought between Germany’s Team Andrea Schöpp and Scotland’s Team Eve Muirhead. A battle of experience and youth.
An extra end was required to split the two rinks – with Germany prevailing 8-6 over the future Olympic champion skip to take their country’s second world women’s title.
Today, in Sandviken, we have a few players that featured in the event, including: Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Denmark’s Dupont sisters.
Difficult to call
Korea have fought back into the contest and are now level at 5-5 with New Zealand. Plenty of steals have dictated proceedings – can either rink take control as we reach the home straight?
Stat check
We’ve looked at the scores, so let’s delve deeper into the United States-Japan tie. Team Fujisawa Satsuki’s draw weight appears to be dialled in – but as they showed yesterday, anything can happen right up until the final stone.
Half-time scores
We’re halfway through the opening session on day three – so let’s take a look at the scores…
United States 1-6 Japan
Canada 2-2 Italy
Korea 4-5 New Zealand
Shot watch
‘And there’s the roll, that’s a lovely shot.’ 😍 Well played by Yoshida Chinami 🇯🇵 who makes a delicate hit and roll.
Watch live on the Curling Channel at https://t.co/fy3vfdBx89#WWCC2023 #curling pic.twitter.com/p5EzDo0KfW
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
New Zealand fired up
A tricky couple of days for New Zealand definitely hasn’t dampened their spirit. You can see they are loving the experience of representing their country on the world stage. This morning, Bridget Becker has moved into the skip role with Jessica Smith playing alternate.
And that spirited perseverance is working, as they lead Korea 4-0 after three ends.
These two teams did meet at the Pan Continental Championships back in November. It was Ha Seungyoun’s rink that took victory on that occasion, winning 10-6 in Calgary, Canada.
Italian defence
While we’re still in the early stages of the round robin, Italy are proving a tough nut to crack. Skipped by Olympic gold medallist, Stefania Constantini, they have conceded the fewest points out of the 13 teams – just 11 in three games. Can Canada unlock the puzzle?
Some well-placed stone from Italy force Kerri Einarson to draw to the four foot for a single point. In the huddle, though, the Canadian skip tells her teammates: “We’re playing well, so let’s keep going.”
It’s a tied game at one apiece.
United States v Japan
This is the eighth encounter between Team Tabitha Peterson and Team Fujisawa Satsuki, with the Japan rink having the edge over United States – leading 4-3 in their head-to-head record. However, it is Peterson and co who have ran out winners in both match-ups this season.
It is Japan who currently have the advantage on the ice in Sandviken, though, as they take two in the opening end.
Local Mayor highlights local pride in hosting Curling World Championship
Peter Karnstrom, Chairman of the Municipal Board of the city of Sandviken, took part in the Opening Ceremony of the 2023 LGT World Women’s Championship on Saturday and afterwards gave some insight into how the local community was feeling about having a world championship event on their doorstep.
First of all, he explained his formal position by saying: “You should think of it as me being the local Mayor”. He then added: “This is putting Sandviken on the map. But it also brings pride to the people who live here – something big is happening here. Especially in these times, that’s important – it’s a source of pride in the community to be part of an event like this. We’re showing that we can contribute here in Sandviken.”
He also touched on Sandviken’s track record in hosting big events, especially World Championships and World Cups. “This is the third World Championship event we’ve had here. The first was in 1958 when the football World Cup was here. We then had the Bandy World Cup in this arena and now curling.”
He added: “We feel great about having all these fine athletes and visitors here. We think we can promote Sandviken as a good place and show the visitors and teams what a great place it is to live in.”
Turning to more practical economic positives, he said: “The benefit is, of course, that the visitors spend money in the restaurants, in the hotels and elsewhere locally. But another one of the benefits is that this lets us reach out to the world – this is a great TV event with a lot of people watching and hearing about Sandviken.”
Peter is also clear of the local ambition to host more events: “Maybe the next thing is to have some more great curling events in this arena.” On the evidence so far, it’s likely that the curling family would love to return.”
Let's recap on the standings...
Before we take ship on day three’s matches, let’s see where we stand…
Our breakfast menu
Happy Monday!
Let’s start the week well = with some world-class 🥌action from the #WWCC2023
🇺🇸 United States v Japan 🇯🇵
🇨🇦 Canada v Italy 🇮🇹
🇰🇷 Korea v New Zealand 🇳🇿🕘: 9 am (CET)
✍️: https://t.co/fMBfmxZ0l3
📺: https://t.co/fy3vfdBx89📸 WCF / Stephen Fisher#Curling pic.twitter.com/yIaigm5ldE
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 20, 2023
Good morning from rainy Sandviken!
Welcome to Day 3 at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2023!
