3 November 2023
Korea and Canada to play for men’s Pan Continental title
Canada beat United States by 8-3 while Korea were 8-7 winners over Japan in Friday morning’s men’s semi-finals. These two winners now go on to face each other in Saturday afternoon’s gold medal final while, before that, United States and Japan will play for bronze.
The game between defending champions Canada and United States was tight until the ninth end, when a hogged stone by the Americans set up an open hit by Canada’s skip Brad Gushue for three points, making the score 6-3. In the tenth end, United States tried to generate a score of three to tie, but couldn’t convert their final stone, giving Canada a steal of two and a 8-3 final score.
Afterwards, Canada’s Gushue said, “We had to be really patient because we weren’t making many shots. It was just a matter of managing the game as well as we could, keeping it close and giving ourselves a chance. Fortunately, we got a miss from them in the ninth that turned into a three. We probably didn’t deserve to win that game, but we did. We’re not playing our best, but we’re making timely shots and finding ways to win.”
Korea versus Japan
The other semi was equally tight, with back-and-forth scores. The turning point in this game came in the eighth when Korea’s skip Park Jongduk was able to draw for three points and a 7-5 lead after Japan had a hog-line violation. Japan then scored two in the ninth to level the game, 7-7, playing the final end.
Eventually, in the tenth end, Park had a straightforward nose-hit to score one point and seal the 8-7 win.
Speaking later about facing Canada in the second successive final, Park said, “Team Gushue is one of my favourite teams and going into a final against then is an honour for me. It’s in Canada with a home crowd so there will be lots of Canadian fans, but I feel that we just need to keep our place and get our mentality together, then we’ll get the result that we want, just like in the first game with them.”
Engage with the World Curling Federation during the Pan Continental Curling Championships 2023 on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Weibo and by searching the hashtags #curling and #PCCC
