Korea and Japan both had wins in Tuesday afternoon’s sixth session of women’s round-robin play at the Olympic Qualification Event, to stay ahead of the rest of the field in the hunt for play-off places.
Korea faced Estonia and were 3-0 up after two ends. In the third, Estonia’s fourth player Kerli Laidsalu played a draw into the house to score two points and reduce Korea’s lead to 3-2.
However, in the sixth end, with Korea now leading by 5-3, Laidsalu missed out on a double take-out attempt to give Korea a steal of two points and a 7-3 lead. Korea went on to win by 10-5.
After this game, Korea coach Lim Myung Sup said, “Today the ice has changed a little, and the girls made a good adjustment, so I’m really happy.”
With five wins, the Koreans are now within touching distance of Olympic qualification and about this he added, “The next game will be important. We’ll just keep going and keep concentrating on the ice.”
Japan faced Latvia in this session. In the first end, Japan skip Fujisawa Satsuki played a controlled draw into the house to open the scoring with two points.
By the fifth end, Japan led by 5-1, and Fujisawa played another draw shot, to score two more points and take her team’s lead to 7-1.
Latvia conceded after seven ends, with a final score of 9-1 to Japan.
This result means that Japan now moves into second place on the table, behind Korea.
After this win, Fujisawa said, “After losing a game yesterday [to Scotland], we had a good meeting, and we came back with a fresh feeling again. That’s why we could play so well today. We have been playing a lot this year, so we’ve been working hard on our communications, that’s why communication is one of our strengths.”
Scotland played Germany in this session. After opening with a score of two in the first end, Scotland were 2-1 ahead after three ends of play. In the fourth end Scot skip Eve Muirhead played a draw to add another two points to the score, for a 4-1 lead.
By the ninth end, the Scots led by 6-3 when Germany’s Daniela Jentsch played a hit-and-stay to score one point and reduce Scotland’s lead to 6-4.
The Scots went on to win by 7-4 for fourth place on the table.
Afterwards, Muirhead said, “We were in control there. We carried on our good play from yesterday – that was clinical, and the team came together very well.”
Looking forward, she said, “We have our eye on the prize that we want so badly. We’re just focussing every single game. We’ve got three very important games to come and we need to bring our ‘A’ game for all of them.”
Italy played Czech Republic in this session, and, in the second end, with the Czechs led by 1-0, Italy’s skip Stefania Constantini played a hit-and-stay with her last stone, to score five points and take a 5-1 lead.
The Czechs could not recover from this, and Italy went on to win by 13-6.
Later, Constantini said, “We played a very good game there, and we led all the way. Our only weakness was in the eighth end when they scored three, but we didn’t manage the ice so well then.”
Speaking about the remainder of her campaign, she said, “We know that we have to win every game from now. If we win them all – and we can do it, – then it’s possible to qualify. But we have to stay focussed.”
Turkey sat out this session.
Women Session Six results: Korea 10-5 Estonia; Czech Republic 6-13 Italy; Japan 9-1 Latvia; Scotland 7-4 Germany
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