2 November 2023
Play-off picture nearly complete at Pan Continental Championship
With a 4-2 win over United States in Wednesday evening’s second-last round-robin session, Japan men qualified for the semi-finals, joining already qualified Canada and Korea.
This win followed up their morning victory (6-4) over New Zealand and afterwards, Japan skip Yamagisawa Riku said, “I’m so glad that we’ve now qualified. We had good communication and made good shots, so we’re happy with that game.”
Also in the evening, Chinese Taipei beat Guyana by 9-3, their first victory so far and a win that guarantees them a spot in the A-Division next season.
This victory followed a 1-8 morning defeat at the hands of Canada. After their second game, Chinese Taipei skip Randolph Shen said, “That was a better effort. It’s nice to put a game together when it really matters because of relegation. We feel a combination of happy and relieved that we’re staying in the A-Division next year because the teams that are coming up from the B-Division are very strong.”
In other games in the evening, Canada beat Australia by 9-4 while New Zealand moved into fourth place on the rankings with an 8-5 success over Korea.
Despite this loss, Korea’s earlier 8-3 win over United States qualified them for the semi-finals. After that game, skip Park Jongduk said, “The team is playing really well, we’re all happy and having great fun, and we’re happy with the team’s performance.”
Australia carved out their first win so far in the first session of the day, beating Guyana by 9-4 and after this result, their skip Jay Merchant said, “We needed to pull one off sooner or later. It is incredibly important that we stay on the ‘A’ side. We saw last night that the Australian ladies are in a bit of strife, so we need to stay in the A-Division.”
Women’s A-Division
The women in the A-Division played a single session on Wednesday. Despite losing their game against Korea by 8-9, results elsewhere meant that Canada qualified for the semi-finals.
They now complete a line-up that includes Japan, Korea and United States, who had all booked their semi-finals slots before this session.
United States came into this session undefeated at the top of the table. However, they lost that record as Japan beat them (3-8), largely thanks to a score of three in the fifth and a steal of one in the sixth end.
With the four semi-finalists determined, attention turned to the games involving teams who are battling against relegation.
Mexico faced Chinese Taipei with both teams only sitting on one victory so far. This game went into the fifth-end break tied at 3-3.
Single steals in each of the seventh and eighth ends gave Chinese Taipei a 6-3 advantage after eight. Although Mexico pegged this back to 6-5 with a score of two in the ninth, Chinese Taipei ran them out of stones in the tenth for a 6-5 victory, their second win so far.
Afterwards Chinese Taipei skip Cynthia Lu said, “Any win is a good win. It was our goal to keep our place in the A-Division, so that’s pretty exciting. We’re really happy with how the week has gone… Mission accomplished!”
Australia were still looking for a first win as they faced New Zealand, and with a score of three in the eighth end, they took a 9-4 lead.
Despite the New Zealanders’ score of three in the ninth, the Australians went on to win by 9-7 to keep their hopes of avoiding relegation alive.
After this result, Australia skip Jennifer Westhagen said, “We have one game left that we’ve got to win. We’ve been playing well but it just hasn’t been coming all together for a win. It doesn’t give you anything to wonder about, we know what we have to do tomorrow.”
Men’s B-Division
In the evening session, China beat Brazil by 9-3, Philippines were 16-0 winners over Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong defeated India by 8-6. These results mean that the winning teams have qualified for the semi-finals.
Women’s B-Division
In the fourth round-robin session, China beat Philippines by 18-1 while Jamaica won over Hong Kong by 10-6. These results mean that China and Jamaica have now qualified for the semi-finals. In the third game of this session, Brazil beat Kenya by 14-1.
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