31 January 2024
Quarter-finals set at Gangwon 2024
The quarter-finals at the Youth Olympic Games are now set after 15 sessions of round robin.
The top two teams from each group who qualified are:
Group A: Great Britain and Czechia
Group B: United States and Sweden
Group C: China and Japan
Group D: Denmark and Germany
These teams will now play tonight (31 January) at 19:00 for a place in the semi-finals.
The match-ups are the following:
Great Britain and Germany, Sweden versus China, Czechia against United States, and Japan will play Denmark.
Czechia won two key games, yesterday, against Canada, and today against Korea to lock their play-off spot.
“The game with Canada was really, really hard for us mentally because we had to win to qualify. And this match [against Korea] it was hard too as well, but we were so happy from yesterday so it was easier for us,” said Czechia’s Ondrej Blaha.
“We are really good friends, I think we are just good together, no arguments so it’s nice. We want to do the best we can. We are looking forward to it [the quarter-finals].”
Great Britain secured their spot after beating Canada, by 7-6. The Brits were able to fight back after being down two points in the final end, by making a hit for three and the win.
“It’s absolutely amazing we just can’t believe it!” said Great Britain’s Callie Soutar immediately after the game. It was a game of ups and downs anyways. High quality from Canada, they made it tough for us. So I’m very thankful we came out with that win.”
“We just got our stone placement so well in that last end and Canada struggled to try and get points off of us and force us to one,” explained her teammate Ethan Brewster.
The game between Latvia and Japan also went down to the last stone. Latvia had a chance to win with a double takeout but it over curled, giving Japan the stolen victory, 5-4.
“We are speechless! said Japan’s Shinya Kawai. “We were so nervous in the last end, but we focused on doing our best.”
Denmark brother and sister duo, who claimed silver in the mixed team event, also advanced after defeating Kazakhstan by 15-3.
“We had a great performance today and we hope to do the same in the play-offs,” said Denmark’s Jacob Schmidt.
The team now have a chance to earn a second Youth Olympic medal.
“We hope to try and do the same in the mixed teams, but we’ll see where we are after the quarters,” said Jacob Schmidt.
“There are a lot of great teams, so it’s gonna be tough,” said his sister Katrine Schmidt.
Click here for results and standings.
