14 March 2024
Play-off field complete at World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles
Thursday 14 March was the last day of round-robin play at the SD Biosensor World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024. Altogether 16 games were played in the Gangneung Curling Centre in four sessions.
Click here for the standings in all groups after day three.
At the start of the day, all eight quarter-final places were vacant, and at the end of the evening, all were taken.
Group A
Five games were held in this group. Norway had two games. First, they played Slovakia and lost by 4-6. This victory for Slovakia meant play-off qualification for them.
Afterwards, a very happy Monika Kunkelova commented on their quarter-final qualification, “Perfect! And it means we have Paralympic points, so, perfect!”
In the evening, Norway met Scotland and lost by 4-5. This was Scotland’s second game of the day as earlier, they had won over Türkiye by 7-5.
Estonia also had two games on Thursday. First, they lost against Poland by 9-10, then, they lost against Latvia by 2-11.
That win for Latvia meant quarter-final qualification for them.
After their win over Estonia, Latvia’s Polina Rozkova said, “I feel fine! This was our goal to qualify for the play-offs. We hope that tomorrow we will have two games.”
These results mean that Slovakia finished first in the group, and Latvia came second. They both qualified for the quarter-finals. Due to their good Draw Shot Challenge results, Estonia also made it to the play-offs.
Group B
Five games were played in this group as well. Switzerland had a two-game day. In the morning, they lost against Finland, 7-10, and in the evening, they lost against Italy, 6-10. That was Italy’s second game of the day. Earlier, they had lost to United States, 5-9. With that victory, United States qualified for the play-offs, undefeated after five games.
Afterwards, Matt Thums said, “It feels good! Good five games, we keep improving each time, so it feels good to be qualified.”
His teammate, Oyuna Uranchimeg added, “It’s been a great week so far, I couldn’t be any happier!”
The Americans picked up another win as they defeated Canada by 6-5 in the evening.
England and Slovenia played each other in the afternoon and England won by 10-3. This was Slovenia’s last game at their first ever World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Championship.
After the game, their male player, Robert Zerovnik shared his experience, “It was very exciting! The organisation was very good, it was very nice. We must train more, and as it was the first, we are pleased. Great hotel and the people are very kind.”
After four days of play, United States finished on top of the group’s standings, whereas Italy came second. They both qualified for the quarter-finals.
Group C
Five games took place on Thursday in Group C.
In the morning, hosts Korea met Japan and lost by 3-6. This was Korea’s first loss of the tournament. In the late afternoon, they came back strong and won their game against China by 8-2. After that session, it was confirmed that both Korea and China advanced to the play-offs.
China had won their morning game over Sweden, 10-5. The Swedish team had another game in the afternoon against Hungary that they won by 9-4.
In the morning, newcomers on this stage, Spain played Denmark. The teams were tied at 4-4 after six. Denmark won by 6-4 due to single steals in the last two ends.
These results mean that Korea finished on the top of the group’s round-robin table, while China finished second. Both of them qualified for the quarter-finals. Due to their good Draw Shot Challenge results, third-ranked Japan also qualified for the play-offs.
The quarter-finals will be held on Friday 15 March at 10:00. The winners of these games will play in the semi-finals at 17:00 on the same day.
The winners of the semi-finals will play in the gold medal game, the losers of the semi-finals will meet in the bronze medal game. Both medal games will take place on Saturday 16 March at 10:00.
All times are KST (Korean Standard Time) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +8 hours.
Click here for the final round-robin standings.
Click here for all the results and the playing schedule.
For information about streaming, click here.
Engage with the World Curling Federation during the SD Biosensor World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024 on TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook, and Weibo and by searching the hashtags #WWhMDCC and #wheelchaircurling
