20 March 2024

Canada climb to top spot

In a dramatic eleventh round-robin session, Canada beat Switzerland by 8-5 which gave them top spot in the standings while ending Switzerland’s historic winning streak of 42 games. 

The game was tight until the seventh end, where Tirinzoni missed a raise, leaving Canada in a strong position to draw for four and an 8-4 lead. When the Swiss could only respond with a single point in the eighth end, they conceded the game by 8-5.

After her crucial win, Canada’s skip Rachel Homan said, “it was close the whole way. Obviously that one end [seventh] made it look a more lop-sided than it was, it was back and forth. It was a lot of fun and the crowd was great.”

Meanwhile, Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni reflected on their feat, “it had to come to an end at some point. We’ve never played for something like that. For me it is almost unbelievable that we could make it at this level. They played so great – we tried everything but not today, so 42 it is.”

Earlier in the day, Canada had beaten Italy by 8-7 while Switzerland were 6-3 winners over Norway in a re-run of last year’s final. 

Standings shaking up

Following their morning loss to Canada, Italy responded with an 11-3 win over New Zealand. 

Meanwhile, Sweden had two wins – by 9-6 over Türkiye and an extra end 6-5 over Denmark. These victories continue Sweden’s recovery from an opening three losses. 

Sweden’s skip Anna Hasselborg said, “we’ve been playing pretty well even though we’ve lost the first three games. It’s frustrating to see yourself at the bottom of the table but we know that all that matters is playing the final game. There are some things that we have to improve on, but we were not that far off.  We played three really good teams and I’m sure all those three teams will be in at the end of the week. Hopefully we will be too, and we’ll have a chance to play them again.”

Korea also had two wins – beating Scotland by 9-3 and following that up with a 10-3 victory over Türkiye. After her defeat of Türkiye, Korean skip Gim Eunji said, “performance-wise we’re improving step-by-step in every game, so we’re satisfied with that.”

Before their loss to Sweden, Denmark had beaten United States by 7-4.

These results mean that Canada now sit in a clear lead at the top of the rankings, on six wins and no losses, next are Switzerland on 6-1. Italy and Korea share third spot on 5-1 while Denmark are fifth on 5-2 and Sweden occupy what will eventually be the last qualification slot on 4-3. 

Below these teams, Japan, Norway, Scotland and United States sit on two wins while, at the foot of the table, Estonia, New Zealand and Türkiye have just one win so far.

Find the scores, results and standings here.
Watch the games on The Curling Channel.