Two-win opening day for hosts Korea at World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles

The SD Biosensor World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024 began on Monday 11 March in Gangneung, Korea with four sessions of play.

21 teams are competing for medals and the world title. They are divided into three round-robin groups of seven.

Group A

Teams in the group are Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia and Türkiye.

Title-defenders, Latvia played two games on the opening day. They lost their first game against Slovakia, 1-9, and won their second one over Poland by 10-1.

After their win against Latvia, Slovakia’s Monika Kunkelova said, “It’s perfect to enter the tournament with a win. We didn’t think about that we are playing the world champions. These thoughts should stay in the changing room. Every game is unique, no matter if it is against the world champions or a team who attends the championship for the first time.”

Her teammate, Radoslav Duris added, “There was a perfect atmosphere on the ice, every stone was good from our side, that was the key point.”

Estonia also had two games on Monday. They won the first one over Türkiye by 9-3. This was Türkiye’s only game of the day. Estonia picked up their second win of the day in the afternoon, a stolen victory against Norway, 8-7.

Earlier, Norway had picked up a win against Poland by 11-7.

After their first win, Estonia’s Katlin Riidebach said, “It’s just the first game, we’re taking it game by game. It’s always good to win, but the next game is coming up. Step by step!”

Slovakia kept their great form from the morning when they played Scotland in the afternoon. Kunkelova and Duris won by 11-3 in seven ends.

Group B

Canada, England, Finland, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and United States make up this group. This is Slovenia’s debut on World Curling ice in this discipline.

On the first day, four games took place in this group.

Last year’s bronze medallists, Canada, had a two-game day. They lost their opening game against Switzerland, 3-6, then picked up their first win over Slovenia in six ends, 9-1.

After their afternoon win against Canada, Switzerland’s Pierre-Alain Tercier said, “We are relaxed! The stress is away after winning the first game.”

Talking about the key to their victory, he added, “Our concentration, our good draw weight and that we had fun! That was the most important that we had fun from the start. Being at our first world championship, this is a fantastic start.”

After their second game of the day, Canada’s Dennis Thiessen said, “This morning was a little disappointing, we found our groove this afternoon. We said if we come on here one-and-one day today, we’re gonna be happy. So we accomplished what we had said we’re gonna do.”

His teammate, Collinda Joseph added, “We just wanted to stay true to our strengths and true to the process. We just ended up on the wrong side of the inch this afternoon, so we went back to what we know and how we play. I think that made a really big difference tonight. We knew we could have a bounce back game and we were really counting on that tonight.”

In the morning, last year’s silver medallists, United States met Finland and won, 9-2.

Finland versus United States © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

In the fourth game in this group, Italy met England in the afternoon, and won by 12-3.

Group C

This group consists of China, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, Japan, Korea and Sweden. This is the first time a Spanish team plays at a World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Championship.

Six games took place in this group on Monday.

China had a two-game opening day. First, they picked up a last-stone win over Hungary, 9-7. Later, they played Japan and won again, 11-4. For Japan, it was a half-and-half day, as they had won over Spain earlier, 7-4.

China versus Hungary © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

Hosts, Korea, had two games as well. First, they met Denmark and won by 10-7, then, they played Hungary and picked up another win, 12-3.

Denmark had a second chance to collect their first win, when they met Sweden in the evening. Their game went all the way to an extra end, where Sweden ran out of time and with that, handed the win to Denmark.

Denmark celebrate their win over Sweden © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

Opening Ceremony

After the first session, the official Opening Ceremony was held in the Gangneung Curling Centre. Sung Il Kim, Chair of the Local Organising Committee, Hugh Millikin, Vice-president of World Curling, Kyung Sun Yoon, President of the Local Organising Committee and Hyo Ken Lee, Vice-president of the title sponsor, SD Biosensor all delivered greetings and well wishes for the competitors.

The opening stone was delivered by Yang Hyu Cho, member of the Korean wheelchair curling team that had won Paralympic silver medals in 2010 in Vancouver, Canada.