United States men and China women secure Bronze at Pan Continental

The Pan Continental Curling Championships are rapidly approaching its medal climax, with the women’s semi-finals – featuring Canada against China, and Korea versus Japan – played on Friday morning.

This game between Canada and China was tied at 2-2 at the fifth-end break and then, in the ninth end with the score still tied at 3-3, Canada skip Rachel Homan played a tap-up to score two points and take a 5-3 lead.

In the tenth end, China skip Wang Rui played an inch-perfect draw to score two points and level the game again – this time at 5-5 – and force an extra end. In that extra end, Homan produced the final shot for the one point needed to give her team a 6-5 win and a place in the gold medal final. China will now play for bronze.

Afterwards, Canada’s Homan said, “we had a few mis-reads here and there but we just had to learn from that. It’s really exciting to get to the final for Canada, for the first time.”

Canada’s Emma Miskew waves to fans after win © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

The other semi-final saw second-placed Japan play third-placed Korea.

By the ninth end, Korea held a 6-5 lead when Japan skip Miyu Ueno had a nose-hit on a Korea stone to score one point and tie the game at 6-6. Then, in the tenth end, Korea’s Eunji Gim played a draw with her final stone, to score one point and win the game by 7-6. This win puts Korea into the gold medal final against Canada, with a chance to retain the title this team won last year, while Japan went on to face China in the bronze game.

After her win, Kim Eunji said, “it means a lot to be back in the final. We want to play the next game well and go home with gold.”

Japan’s Ueno Miyu and Korea’s Gim Eunji © World Curling / Anil Mungal

Women’s bronze

The evening game saw China win the bronze medal against Japan. Japan opened the scoring with a single point, but China fought back immediately when skip Wang Rui scored two with a raise tap-back in the second end.

Japan scored a single in the fourth end after blanking the third. China blanked the fifth end to go into the break tied at 2-2.

Japan stole a single point in the sixth end, after which China took control of the game. Wang played a hit to score two points in the seventh end, then stole a single in the eighth end following an umpire’s measure.

In the ninth end, Japan’s skip Ueno Miyu attempted a hit and stay to bring Japan back into the game, but rolled out, giving up the double-point steal. China ran Japan out of stones in the tenth, securing Japan’s bronze medal with a score of 7-3.

China’s skip, Wang Rui said, “I’m very happy! Every game has been oh so close, so what we had to do was play our own game and keep our patience.

“This team is like a family, even though we lost some games, we stay together, play together, and fight together.”

Men’s bronze

Before the women’s bronze medal game, United States and Canada faced each other in Friday afternoon’s men’s bronze medal game.

Both teams made use of last stone advantage in the first two ends, each scoring two points to tie the game at 2-2. In the third end, after a series of take-outs through the same port and a buried draw from United States skip John Shuster, a come-around hack-weight from Canadian skip Brad Gushue added another two points, for 4-2.

United States made a break-through in the fourth end with a score of three for 5-4. Then, in the fifth, Canada’s Gushue rolled too far and he had to settle for a single point, and 5-5.

The seventh end gave Canada a chance to score four points, but due to over-curling on Gushue’s last, they had to settle for a two, to tie up the game again, at 7-7.

In the final end, the United States were leading 9-8 with hammer. On Canada’s last shot, they froze onto the United States’ shot stone, but John Shuster threw the perfect draw, covering a piece of the button, scoring one, to finish the game at 10-8, and earn the bronze medal for the United States.

After playing “an incredible game against an incredible team”, John Shuster was happy with his team, saying they were “playing better every game” and “really grooving into the team we’re trying to become”.

United States’s John Shuster and Matt Hamilton celebrate © World Curling / Anil Mungal

B Division

In the B-Divisions, Australia’s women beat Philippines by 11-6 in one semi-final, to progress to the gold medal game, while Jamaica had an 9-8 victory over Kazakhstan to face them in the final. Philippines and Kazakhstan will now play for bronze.

In the men’s B-Division semi-finals, Kazakhstan beat Jamaica by 10-3, while the Philippines were 6-1 winners over Hong Kong China. Kazakhstan now face the Philippines for gold, while Jamaica play Hong Kong China for bronze medals.