The three play-off teams qualified from Group A – Scotland, Canada and Italy — had already been determined before Friday evening’s last round-robin session.
Because of this, the focus switched to which team would finish in fourth place in the group and go into a play-off against United States from Group B, for the seventh spot in next year’s Olympic line-up.
In addition, there were relegation play-off issues to be determined.
Czech Republic win fourth place battle
The game between Czech Republic and Germany would determine the fourth-placed team and it was the Czechs who took the early advantage. Following an opening score of one point, Czech Republic forced a single-point steal in the second end, to take a 2-0 lead.
In this tense game, the score was tied at 4-4 as the teams entered the eighth end, with the Czechs holding last stone advantage.
With that last stone, Czech Republic’s Zuzana Paulova played a solid draw into the house against two German counters to score the one point needed for a 5-4 win.
Czech Republic now face United States in the Olympic Qualification game tomorrow and afterwards, Paulova said: “I think we deserved that a little bit. I’m very proud of our performances this week and so we’re now playing another game. I’m pretty happy, we made some amazing shots today, against Canada and the Germans as well.”
Her partner Tomas Paul added: “We need to generate more points with hammer, we’re just scoring ones and that’s not enough.”
Italy take third while Korea enter relegation game
In their game against Korea, Italy scored two points in the first end and had a steal of four points in the fourth end to take a 7-2 lead into the break.
Italy went on to win by 8-4 when they ran Korea out of stones in the eighth end. This result means that Korea finished in ninth place and must now face Japan from Group B in a relegation play-off.
Scotland make it eight wins
Scotland scored two points in each of the first, fifth and seventh ends as they beat Hungary by 7-4.
This meant that Hungary finished in eighth place in the group rankings and now face Finland from Group B in the relegation play-off game.
Canada close round robin with a win
After scoring four points in the first end of their game against RCF, Canada won by 11-6 when Kerri Einarson knocked an RCF stone off the button to score three points in the eighth end.
RCF finished sixth overall.
Australia escape relegation fight
Australia beat Spain by 7-4 to finish seventh place in the Group and retain a place in next year’s Championship.
While Spain, without a win, ended up in tenth place in the group and are relegated to next season’s qualification event.
Group A session nine results: Italy 8-6 Korea; Scotland 7-4 Hungary; Canada 11-6 RCF; Spain 4-7 Australia; Germany 4-5 Czech Republic.
Group A standings (W-L):
Q Scotland 8-1
Q Canada 7-2
Q Italy 7-2
Czech Republic 5-4
Germany 5-4
RCF 4-5
Australia 3-6
Hungary 3-6
Korea 3-6
Spain 0-9
Q = Qualified for the play-offs and earned a place in the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games mixed doubles event.
Engage with the World Curling Federation during the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2021 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and by searching the hashtag #WMDCC2021 #curling #Roadto2022
