30 October 2023
Korea top Pan Continental defending champions Canada
A busy opening day of the Pan Continental Curling Championships in Kelowna, Canada, saw men’s defending champions Canada lose their opening round-robin game to Korea, by 8-5.
The men’s A-Division teams only had one session on Sunday, with the most dramatic game being Korea’s 8-5 defeat of last year’s champions. This game turned in the fifth end, when Canada’s skip Brad Gushue came up short with his final draw, to hand Korea a steal of two points and a 5-2 lead.
Korea then went to win, and afterwards, their skip Park Jongduk said, “It was a big game, obviously. Everyone felt nervous, but in the end, we achieved the win, and we feel great about it.”
In the same session, Australia faced neighbours New Zealand, and it was the Kiwis who emerged as winners, by 8-6, thanks largely to a score of three in the third end and a final draw to win.
Speaking later, New Zealand skip Anton Hood said, “Our goal this week is just to be proud of how we played, and that performance really showed that for us. We love playing Australia, they’re our mates, so it was good to have a good game and come out on top.”
Elsewhere in this session, Japan opened with a 12-2 win over Chinese Taipei that included a score of four in the sixth end to finish off the game, while United States had a 19-0 whitewash of Guyana.
Women’s A-Division
The women’s A-Division played two games and defending champions Japan opened with a 9-4 win over New Zealand before going on to beat Canada by 10-7. Earlier, the Canadians had beaten Chinese Taipei by 9-2.
“I’m super happy right now,” said Japan skip Fujisawa Satsuki. “We always try to have fun on the ice. It’s a big event for us. Sometimes we (are) too serious so we always need (to) smile.”
Now Japan go into a three-way tie at the top of the table, beside United States and Korea, all on two wins and no losses.
To sit at the top of the rankings, United States first beat Australia by 10-4 before defeating Chinese Taipei by 10-2 in the evening session. After her team’s opening win, United States skip Tabitha Peterson was happy to confirm how much she enjoyed playing in this event.
She said, “It’s good to play all these other teams. I think in the long run it’ll [this championship] be a good thing. We enjoy playing in it.”
Meanwhile, Korea’s two wins saw them beat Mexico by 10-1 and then New Zealand by 15-2.
In the evening session, Mexico beat Australia by 8-7 after an extra end, to record their first win so far.
B-Division firsts
As well as Jamaica women’s win over Kenya in their first World Curling showing, the opening session of the women’s B-Division saw China beat Hong Kong by 10-3 and Brazil winning over the Philippines by 13-4.
Speaking about her historic win, Jamaica skip Cristiene Hall said, “We’re thrilled… Couldn’t believe that! We want to make the play-offs and if we play like we did today, I think we’ve got a really good chance.”
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Philippines men made their Member Association’s debut on the World Curling stage in the B-Division, and marked this historic occasion with a 12-4 win over Mexico. On the way to this win, they scored four in the fifth end and threes in both the third and eighth ends.
Still celebrating his team’s performance, Philippines skip Marc Pfister said, “We were a little bit nervous at the beginning, this is a big stage for us to play on. But we were really solid. I’m really happy, and that’s good for our confidence. The target now is to win the next game and the game after that, we’ll take it step by step.”
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Other winners in the men’s B-Division were India, who beat Brazil by 9-2; China, who had a 13-3 victory over Hong Kong; and Saudi Arabia – 18-4 winners over Kenya.
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