Japan beat Korea by 8-4 in Wednesday morning’s seventh session of women’s round-robin play at the Olympic Qualification Event, and this result between the two table-toppers means that both have now qualified for the play-offs.
Germany, Italy and Scotland all won in this session as well, and all three remain in the hunt to make the play-offs too.
Japan opened their game against Korea strongly, with skip Fujisawa Satsuki playing a draw to score three points in the opening end.
By the fifth end, Japan held a 5-1 lead when Korea’s Kim Eun-Jung played a hit-and-stay to score two points and reduce Japan’s lead to 5-3.
Japan then scored a singe in the sixth end and had single-point steals in both the seventh and eighth ends on their way to an 8-4 victory.
Afterwards, Fujisawa said, “We had a good start in the first end, and we tried to be patient after that. We were in trouble in the eighth end, but we just tried to focus on our own shots and we succeeded.”
Scotland played Estonia in this session. The Scots opened the scoring in the second end with a steal of two points. After two blank ends, Estonia skip Liisa Turmann managed a draw for one point to cut the Scots’ lead to 2-1.
In the sixth end, Scotland’s Eve Muirhead brought her last stone around front stones to score two points and take a 4-1 lead.
In the eighth end, Muirhead had a hit-and-stay to score three points for a 7-2 lead.
The Scots then went on to win by 9-2, a fourth victory that puts them into clear third place on the table.
Speaking later, Muirhead said, “We played well. We managed to get a steal of two in the second end that put us on the front foot, and we really just controlled the game from there on in. I like to think that we’re building form in every single game and that’s what you want to do at a Championships. Right now, we’re definitely trending in the right direction.”
Latvia faced Germany in this session, with the Germans knowing that only a win would keep their Olympic hopes alive.
Germany held a 5-2 lead at the fifth-end break and in the sixth end, Latvia’s fourth player Evelina Barone played a hit-and-stay to score three points and level the game at 5-5.
In the next end, Germany skip Daniela Jentsch had a chance to score two points, but her draw was slightly heavy, and she had to settle for just one point and 6-5 lead.
The Germans went on to win by 8-7 for a second win so far that keeps them mathematically in the play-off race.
After the game, Jentsch said, “We feel confident. We’ve felt good all week, it’s just not coming together for us yet, but one step at a time… We’re still in it. That game was up and down, but I think we managed it well overall. Two more wins and I think we should be in.”
Italy faced Turkey in this session and, with Italy already leading by 2-0, Turkey skip Dilsat Yildiz played a hit in the third end to score two and level the score at 2-2.
In the next end, Italy’s skip Stefania Constantini played a take-out on a Turkey stone to score three points and move on to a 5-2 lead.
Another three points for Italy in the ninth end sealed a 12-4 win.
Late, Italy’s Constantini said, “This was one important game for us, we have to win all the games now. It was a good game, a good performance. We controlled the ice very well. I think we scored in the right ends and forced in the right ends as well.”
Czech Republic sat out this session.
Women Session Seven results: Latvia 7-8 Germany; Korea 4-8 Japan; Estonia 2-9 Scotland; Italy 12-4 Turkey
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