Three round-robin games took place in the National Aquatics Centre on Wednesday morning. Table-toppers Sweden met Norway, Slovakia took on reigning Paralympic champions China, while Estonia played against Korea. Sweden, China and Korea picked up wins in these games.
Norway versus Sweden
Paralympic silver medallists Norway started the game better against current world silver medallists, Sweden, stealing a single point in the first end.
Sweden scored a single in the second after a precise draw by their skip Viljo Pettersson-Dahl.
In the third end, Norway scored two points after two great draws by skip Ole Fredrik Syversen and a missed take-out attempt by Sweden in-between.
In the fourth, Sweden scored two right back to tie the game at 3-3 at half time.
In the fifth end, Norway’s Syversen missed his last take-out attempt, giving up a steal of two and giving Sweden a 5-3 lead.
In the sixth, Sweden’s Pettersson-Dalh made an amazing triple take-out with his last stone, forcing Norway’s Syversen to draw for one, facing three Swedish stones. The Norwegian skip came up light with his attempt, giving up a steal of one.
Norway narrowed the gap to two points after taking one in the seventh.
In the eighth, Norway set themselves up for a steal of multiple points, and Pettersson-Dahl was facing three Norwegian counters before his double take-out attempt with his last.
He could remove only one of them, gave up a steal of two, and put the game to an extra end.
In that extra end, Sweden eventually scored two and won the game, 8-6.
After their extra-end win, Pettersson-Dahl said, “It was a little bit stressful, of course. It’s always a little bit nervous at the end of the games, and it was a close one.”
Talking about the key moments of the game, he added, “Maybe the triple take-out in the seventh was one of the key moments, because they pressured us in that end. And even one end when I made a double, so they couldn’t go for two.”
Speaking about his feelings about their performance so far, he said, “Amazing. We played quite good so far, so we just hope we can keep up and stay focused.”
China versus Slovakia
Prior to this game, China and Slovakia shared second place on the standings with four wins and two losses.
Slovakia stole one point in the first end when Chinese skip Wang Haitao couldn’t remove both Slovak counters with his double take-out attempt.
In the second end, China got on the board with two points, then they forced Slovakia to take a single in the third.
Going into the fourth end, the teams were tied at 2-2. After an excellent draw by Slovak fourth player Peter Zatko to sit shot stone behind cover, Wang attempted a difficult double take-out.
He was not successful with it, and China gave up a single.
After the break, China came out strong, and scored three points in the fifth end to re-take the lead at 5-3.
In the sixth, China stole another two points when Zatko’s take-out attempt didn’t work out.
In the seventh, Slovakia scored two back, narrowing the gap to two points before the eighth end.
In that eighth end, Slovakia couldn’t set themselves up for a score of two to tie the game, and China didn’t need to throw their final stone. The reigning Paralympic champions eventually won by 7-5.
After the game, China’s second, Zhang Mingliang said, “I think we have played the game quite well, we did not rush. Actually, I think we made our shots and controlled the time quite well.”
Speaking about their upcoming round-robin games, he added “I think the most important is that we should have a smooth mentality and we should still take the following games seriously.”
Estonia versus Korea
Both of these teams were seeking their third win of the Paralympic Games in this match-up.
Korea had a draw for two points in the first end, but their skip Jang Jaehyuk came up short with his last stone and they needed to settle for one.
After blanking the second end, Estonia gave up a steal of two points in the third when their skip Andrei Koitmae wrecked on a guard with his last take-out attempt.
Estonia got on the board with one point in the fourth and the teams went into the break with a 3-1 scoreline, Korea leading.
After scoring one in the fifth, Korea stole one in the sixth when Estonia’s Koitmae was heavy with his last draw attempt.
Estonia put another single on the board in the seventh to make the score 5-2 in favour of Korea.
In the eighth Estonia ran out of stones and Korea won the game by 5-2.
Session 12 results: Norway 6-8 Sweden; Estonia 2-5 Korea; China 7-5 Slovakia
Engage with the World Curling Federation during the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and by searching the hashtag #Beijing2022 #WheelchairCurling
