Turkey celebrated their first win of the event so far when they beat Estonia, by 8-5m in Saturday (20 November) evening’s second women’s round-robin session of the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021 in Lillehammer, Norway.
A draw for two points in the seventh end by Turkey skip Dilsat Yildiz was crucial, as it moved them onto a 6-4 lead on the way to their win. Afterwards, Yildiz said, “This was our first win. I believed we could do it today and our concentration helped us today.” She added, “We have targets for the week, we’re looking to win five games.”
Three teams tied for first
While this was a first win for Turkey, Germany, Scotland and Switzerland all recorded their second wins so far to sit as joint leaders on the rankings. Germany beat Italy by 6-4, while Scotland had an 8-2 win over Denmark in just eight ends.
World champions Switzerland beat Czech Republic by 8-3. The Swiss opened with a score of three points in the first end and followed that up with a single-point steal in the second end when Czech Republic’s Alzbeta Baudysova wrecked her stone on the way into the house, giving Switzerland a steal of one point and a 4-0 lead.
Speaking after this second win of the day, Switzerland skip Silvana Tirinzoni said, “That was hard work actually. It was a bit tricky out there, it was quite slow. We had to adjust, and it took us some time, the result is clearer than the game was… we had a little luck at the beginning of the game.”
Reflecting on her team’s overall performance so far, she said, “It’s always good to start with two wins, no matter how the games are played. For sure that wasn’t our best performance, but we ended the day with two wins, so I don’t care!”
Russia record win in extra-end
In the fifth game of the session defending champions Sweden faced Russia.
In the third end of the game, with Sweden leading, by 1-0, Russia skip Alina Kovaleva played a nose-hit to score two points and take a 2-1 lead.
In the fourth end, Sweden’s skip Anna Hasselborg produced a well-delivered double take-out to score one point and level the game at 2-2.
This game eventually went to an extra end, and with the score tied at 5-5, Russia’s Kovaleva nudged a Swedish stone out of position to score the one point needed for a 6-5 win.
Afterwards, Kovaleva said, “It’s a nice feeling to win a game like that, especially when we had a loss in the morning. It was very important for us to get a win, keep going and get back on track.”
Watch all the broadcast games from the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021 online, exclusively on The Curling Channel.
Women’s session two results: Denmark 2-8 Scotland; Sweden 5-6 Russia; Switzerland 8-3 Czech Republic; Turkey 8-5 Estonia; Italy 4-6 Germany.
Engage with the World Curling Federation during the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and by searching the hashtag #ECC2021 #curling
