Day two at the Pan Continental

The women’s A-Division played two sessions, where Canada, Japan and Korea all had two victories to share the lead, unbeaten with three wins.

Canada followed up a morning 13-0 win over Chinese Taipei with a 7-5 victory over China, when Canada skip Rachel Homan got her final draw to the four-foot to win. Meanwhile, after beating China by 11-6, Japan had an extra end 6-5 win over United States.

Team Canada against Chinese Taipei © World Curling / Anil Mungal

After her win over the Americans, Japan’s skip Miyu Ueno said, “that was a tight, tight game, but we adjusted after five ends. But it’s fun and we’re enjoying it.”

Korea had an easier day than the other two co-leaders. Their straightforward victories came against New Zealand by 13-3 and then Chinese Taipei, by 11-1.

In the evening session New Zealand won their first game, with a 10-9 extra end win over Mexico, who had come back from being down 0-7 at the fifth end break to force the extra end when their skip Adriana Camarena scored four points with her final draw of the tenth end.

New Zealand held on to win and afterwards, their skip Chelsea Suddens said, “there’s a lot of relief, we definitely made it hard for ourselves with a lot of misses towards the end, but we came right. Now, we’re hoping to do well in a couple of other games but we’ll see how we go.”

Men’s action

The men in the A-Division only had one game today, where defending champions Canada faced New Zealand. Canada won by 10-5 to retain their unbeaten record and sit in joint top spot.

China played Chinese Taipei in this session where China’s unbeaten record remained after a 12-4 win, maintaining their position as joint leaders.

After this win, China skip Xu Xiaoming said, “this was a very important win for us. We’re getting used to the ice and our teamwork is getting better and better. Day by day, our play is getting better, so we just need to worry about our own game now.”

Australia faced United States in a game where the Americans had control, winning 9-2 which keeps then in joint top spot.

Afterwards, Shuster said, “that was good. The ice was challenging, so we just had to grind it and we put up a couple of good ends. Every team here can make shots so all you’re doing is playing the rocks. Definitely we’re satisfied on three wins – a good sleep tonight and two big games tomorrow.”

The fourth game of this session saw Japan face Korea. In the ninth end, Japan led by 5-2 when Korea attempted a hit to score three points but rolled out settling for two. This reduced the Japan lead to 5-4, but they went on to win by 6-4. After this win, Japan skip Abe Shinya said, “you can’t be happier than three and zero. We’re in a great position for the play-offs now.”

Team Japan © World Curling / Sarah Boeke

These results mean that Canada, China, Japan and United States remain tied together on top spot, undefeated on three wins while the other four teams – Australia, Korea, New Zealand and Chinese Taipei all remain without a win so far.

B-Division

In the B-Divisions, Philippines women beat Kenya by 19-2 to sit unbeaten at the top of their ranking, on three wins. Behind them, on two wins and one loss, sit Australia, Brazil, Jamaica, and Kazakhstan.

Team Philippines © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

The B-Division men’s table is also led by Philippines, who beat newcomers Puerto Rico by 11-2, after earlier defeating Qatar by 12-1, two further wins that make them the only unbeaten men’s team left. Jamaica are in second place, having suffered one loss.