The six spots remaining at the World Junior Curling Championships 2020 are now claimed after the conclusion of medal games at the World Junior-B Curling Championships 2019, held in the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.
The gold, silver and bronze medallists in both the women’s and men’s sides earned their Member Associations a coveted place to compete on the world stage in Krasnoyarsk, Russia from 15 – 22 February 2020.
The six Member Assocations who qualified are: Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia and Sweden.
On the women’s side, Japan’s Sae Yamamoto defeated Latvia’s Evelina Barone 7-1 after six ends to claim the gold medals. In the bronze medal game, Denmark’s Mathilde Halse beat Hungary’s Linda Joo, 8-2, to secure the final spot in the world championships.
After her bronze medal win, Danish skip, Mathilde Halse said, “I feel amazing. I didn’t actually quite believe in it after the third end. We just played really well after the break and were really dominant. We are happy to pull off the win and make it to the A-Division – that is so great.”
Latvia’s historic silver medals make them the first Latvian junior team to reach the World Junior Curling Championships.
In the men’s gold medal game, Sweden’s skip Daniel Magnusson drew to the house on their final stone against Italy’s Giacomo Colli to win, 6-5. Germany, skipped by Sixten Totzek, won bronze 5-4 over France’s Quentin Morard to earn the final spot at the world championships.
The ten women’s teams to compete in Russia will be: Canada, China, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and hosts Russia.
The ten men’s teams will be: Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and hosts Russia.
You can follow the World Junior Curling Championships 2020 and the World Curling Federation on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and by searching the hashtag #curling #WJCC2020
