Korea and United States now share the lead in Group B of the OQE2021, with two wins after Sunday afternoon’s third session.
Korea faced Finland and opened with a score of two in the first end. In the second, Finland’s Oona Kauste played a double take-out to score two points and level the game at 2-2. Then, Korea’s Kim Minji was light with her final draw and this gave the Finns a steal of one and a 3-2 lead.
However, in the fourth, Korea scored three points with a delicate tap-out to take 5-3 lead at the break. Later, Kim had a draw for four points in the sixth end to extend Korea’s lead to 9-4 and went on to win with a final score of 10-4.
In their game against Estonia, United States had a strong start, stealing four points in the first end when Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee came up short with her draw. Estonia fought back after this to level the score at 4-4 after three ends, but in the fourth, United States’ Vicky Persinger hit an Estonian stone to score three and take a 7-4 lead. The Americans had a steal of two points for a 9-4 lead in the fifth end when Estonia could not find a way into a scoring position. United States then went on to win by 11-6.
Afterwards, Persinger said, “We’re glad to get out of that one with a win, that was a lot closer than the scoreboard showed for a while. We had some dicey ends and we’re happy to come out with a two-win day.”
In the third game of the session, Japan faced Latvia, with both teams still looking for their first win.
Japan took a 2-0 lead after two ends, scoring one point in the first end and stealing another in the second. Latvia’s Daina Barone drew her last stone of the third end into position to score two points and level the game at 2-2.
In the fourth end, Japan’s Tanida Yasumasa swept Matsumura Chiaki’s draw all the way onto the button to score two points and give Japan a 4-2 lead. After this, Barone’s last stone of the fifth end wrecked on a front guard to give Japan a steal of two points a 6-2 advantage. Another Japan steal of two in the sixth persuaded Latvia to concede the game, with a final score of 8-2.
After the game, Tanida was delighted to record his team’s first win, saying, “We’re happy with that win. So now we’ll try to keep it going.”
New Zealand sat out this session of Group B play.
Session three results: Japan 8-2 Latvia; Korea 10-4 Finland; Estonia 6-11 United States
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