20 February 2024

A perfect Tuesday takes Italy and Norway to the top of the rankings

The hunt for play-off spots continued on Tuesday as the World Juniors turned into the second half of round-robin play.

Day four saw two men’s sessions and one women’s in the Kisakallio Sports Institute.

Men’s competition

In the morning, sole leaders of the standings, Denmark (4W-0L), played against Norway (3W-1L). The teams went into the break tied at 2-2. Norway played an almost perfect second half of the game, and eventually won by 6-3, handing Denmark their first loss of the event and catching up with them on the standings.

Canada and Italy were both on three wins and one loss, going into their game against each other in the morning. Italy were leading the game by 3-1 after four.

In the fifth end, Italy were lying four stones when Canada skip Johnson Tao was playing his last draw. He needed to navigate through a port, but wrecked on a guard and handed Italy four stolen points for 7-1. Italy kept putting the pressure on Canada and eventually won by 8-3 in eight ends.

After their win, Italy skip Stefano Gilli said, “We are feeling crazy right now, we are on the top of the rankings. We are so excited, we played very well against a good team and we are so happy. We understood the ice better than them maybe and I think we got every stone where we wanted. It was a very nice game.”

In the evening, Italy met Denmark, who were hoping to improve on their record of the day with a win. The teams were tied at 5-5 after six and at 6-6 after eight. Denmark scored a single in the ninth.

When Italy fourth Francesco De Zanna was to play his last, a lonely Danish shot stone was sitting on the four-foot, several Italian stones in the house. Aided by some sweeping, De Zanna’s stone just past a guard to pick out the Danish stone from shot position, score two and win the game, 8-7.

Germany met Switzerland in the morning session, both teams looking to improve on their won two, lost two record. The teams were tied at 2-2 after five ends. In the sixth, Germany were lying two on the four-foot, and Swiss skip Manuel Jermann needed to throw a perfect draw for one. Aided by his sweepers, he executed it perfectly and scored a single.

After two perfect draws by skip Benjamin Kapp in the seventh, Germany scored two and took the lead for the first time, 4-3. In the eighth, Switzerland could only take their one, when Germany scored two in the ninth for a two-point lead, going into the tenth.

In the tenth, a perfect double take-out by Kapp on his last ran Switzerland out of stones. The final result is 6-4, Germany winning and keeping their play-off hopes alive.

After the game, Benjamin Kapp said, “We needed patience. The Swiss guys played really well, and we knew that we just have to keep going and fortunately it worked out. It’s very important to get your two when you have hammer and especially against such a good hitting team it’s even harder, so it was very important for us.”

Title-defenders, China were still looking for their first win of the week when they set to play United States (2W-2L) in the morning. China were leading by 3-1 after six. In the seventh, United States skip Wesley Wendling attempted to tap out the Chinese shot stone from the four-foot, but got his angles slightly wrong and gave China a stolen point.

China were leading the game by 4-2 going into the tenth, having hammer. Their skip Tao Liqiunan, however, missed his last promotion take-out, didn’t remove any of the two American counters and gave two stolen points to United States. This brought the game to an extra end.

In that end, Tao made a highly difficult run-back to score two and win, 6-4. Afterwards, he said, “I’m very happy about our first win, I’m very excited, but we should calm down as we have four games to go.”

Talking about his missed last shot in the tenth, he added, “I blamed myself as the team was working together for ten ends and we were so close to the win. But because of my big mistake, I thought we might lose the game in the extra end. But after the one-minute break, I recovered and came back to the game.”

In the evening, United States were determined make up for their extra-end morning loss, when they played Germany. United States were leading by 3-2 after four ends. From the fifth end onwards, the Americans stole four points in three consecutive ends for a 7-2. After scoring a single with a perfect draw by Benjamin Kapp in the eighth, Germany conceded the game. Unites 7, Germany 3.

After the game, United States third Jackson Bestland said, “We played really good this game, we were all super engaged and played as a team. It was a really great team work.”

Talking about what this win means to them, he added, “It was mostly just like a lot of confidence too, going into the last three round-robin games because now we set ourselves up pretty good to make play-offs. We’re in a really great spot right now.”

In the fifth game of the morning, Scotland (1W-3L) met New Zealand (0W-4L). Scotland were leading the game by 4-1 at half time. After a big score of three in the eighth and a steal of one in the ninth, Scotland were leading by 9-2. At this point, New Zealand conceded defeat, handing Scotland their second win of the week.

New Zealand were looking to pick up their first win of the week in their evening game against China. After a big steal of four in the fifth, China were leading by 8-1 at the break. The Chinese never let go of their lead and eventually won by 10-3 in eight ends.

A curling classic took place in the evening when Switzerland met Scotland, both teams trying to improve on their won two, lost three record. Scotland came out firing in this game and scored threes in both the first and third end to take a 6-2 lead after four ends. In the following two ends, the Scots scored five more points. At this point, Switzerland conceded the game, 11-2.

After the win, Scotland lead Charlie Gibb said, “It was a good win. I think it was the best we’ve played all week. It’s good to get off after six ends, just to rest up and go again tomorrow.”

In the fifth game of the evening, Canada attempted to recover from their morning loss when they met Norway. However, Norway kept their momentum from their victorious morning game against Denmark.

The Norwegians were leading by 3-1 at half time, and after an exchange of two-point scores, they put a big three on the board for 8-3. After Canada scored one in the ninth, they conceded the game with an 8-4 final result.

Women’s competition

In the only women’s session of the day, so-far undefeated Switzerland (5W-0L) played Scotland (2W-3L). In the third end, Scotland skip Robyn Munro came up short with her last draw, giving up a steal of one and giving a 2-1 lead to Switzerland.

The teams were level at 4-4 after six. A score of one and a steal of one gave Switzerland a 6-4 lead after eight. After a blanked ninth end, Scotland tried to manufacture a two-point score, but couldn’t. The final result is 6-4, and Switzerland are still undefeated, very close to qualifying for the play-offs.

Norway (4W-1L) were second on the ranking going into Tuesday’s draw and they were set to play Korea (1W-4L). After two blanked ends, Korea put two on the board in the third for 2-0.

Norway got on the board with three in the fourth for a 3-2 lead. In the sixth, a bit of miscommunication on Korea skip Park Hanbyul’s last draw resulted in a stolen point for Norway, 4-2.

In the seventh, however, a complete miss and a half-made shot by Norway skip Torild Bjoernstad opened the floor for a big score for Korea. They took the opportunity and put three on the board to re-take the lead, 5-4. A score of one, followed by a steal of one for Norway gave them the lead back, 6-5, going into the tenth end.

In that end, both Bjoernstad and Park missed their last shot, and it resulted in a single score for the Koreans and an extra end.

In that end, a Korean stone was sitting on the button, surrounded by stones from both teams. Bjoernstad tried to tap up a Norwegian stone to scoring position, but tapped it slightly too far, giving Korea a stolen point and the win, 7-6.

After their win, Park said, “I was a bit nervous in the extra end, but we finally got the win. I’m so happy about it.”

Canada (3W-2L) played Türkiye (1W-4L) in the afternoon. Both teams qualified to the event by finishing in the top four at the World Junior-B Championships in December. Back then, they played the semi-final against each other and Canada won, 9-4.

This time, Canada was putting the pressure on the Turkish team early on and were leading the game by 6-0 after three ends. They were leading by 9-0 at half time, and eventually won by 9-1 after six ends.

Japan (3W-2L) played China (2W-3L) in this draw. The two teams had completely opposite lead-up to their two-game day. Japan had a two-loss day on Monday, while China picked up their first two wins.

The teams were tied at 3-3 after six ends. After a blanked seventh end, Japan put a big three on the board for 6-3 after eight. They kept the lead from that moment on, and won by 7-5.

In the fifth game of the session, Germany (2W-3L) and Sweden (2W-3L) played each other. The teams were tied at 4-4 after seven.

In the ninth, Germany fourth Kim Sutor slightly missed her take-out attempt and the Germans gave up a steal of three and gave Sweden an 8-4 lead. The Swedish eventually won by 8-4, picking up their third win of the event.

Afterwards, Sweden lead Moa Nilsson said, “Our goal was to have six wins and three losses, so after the three losses we just regrouped and stuck to our plan. It was a really close game and maybe we had more margins on our side.”

Asked about who is the one firing up the team, she said, “Moa, the skip is very energetic and she pushes everyone to be the best and then, the sweepers, we always push each other.”

Click here for the women’s and men’s standings after day four.

Click here for all the results and the playing schedule.

For information about streaming, click here.

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