26 April 2024
Sweden and Estonia to play for World Mixed Doubles gold medals
Estonia will play Sweden in Saturday’s gold medal final, after they both won their semi-final games on Friday. Estonia beat Norway by 8-6 while Sweden were 6-3 winners over Switzerland.
The bronze medal game between Norway and Switzerland will be staged on Saturday at 10:00. The final will take place at 14:00.
Norway versus Estonia
When the teams reached the fifth end of the semi-final, Norway held a 4-2 lead, but Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee then played a draw to score three and move her team onto a 5-4 lead.
By the seventh end, Norway held the lead again, at 6-5 when Kaldvee played a gentle take-out to score two and re-take the lead, at 7-6.
Estonia went on to win by 8-6 to make it to their first-ever world final.
After the game, Marie Kaldvee said, “I think it hasn’t sunk in that we’ve reached the final, because two days ago it didn’t look like we’d make it.”
Switzerland versus Sweden
In the other semi-final, the score was level at 3-3 when the teams played the sixth end.
In this end, Sweden’s Isabella Wranaa played a draw to score two and take a 5-3 lead. In the seventh end, Switzerland’s Briar Huerlimann-Schwaller attempted to play a hit, but it went wrong, and the Swiss ended up giving Sweden a single steal, for 6-3.
The Swiss then ran out of stones in the eighth to put Sweden into the final against Estonia.
Afterwards, Rasmus Wranaa said, “I think we just played a little bit better than them for all the game”, while his sister Isabella said, “It feels so good. It was nice to be able to play like that in the semi-final.”
Qualification games
In the morning’s qualification games, Switzerland beat Scotland by 8-6 while Estonia were 6-5 extra end winners over Canada.
Not surprisingly, both of these games were tight. In the Estonia vs Canada game there was never more than one point between the teams, and it went into an extra end at 5-5.
In that end, Canada’s Kadriana Lott came up short with her final draw to give Estonia a steal of one for their 6-5 win.
The game between Scotland and Switzerland was tied at 2-2 at the break. The Swiss breakthrough came in the seventh end, with a score of four for an 8-4 lead. Eventually, the Swiss won by 8-6.
Relegation games
There were also two relegation play-offs taking place in the morning. Australia beat France by 7-5 to finish eighth in Group B. Czechia won the other game, beating Türkiye by 8-4 to finish eighth in Group A. Australia and Czechia now stay in next year’s event, while France and Türkiye go down to the World Mixed Doubles Qualification Event 2024.
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