First four teams earn play-offs spot

With a 9-8 win over Lithuania on Thursday afternoon, table-toppers Switzerland became the first team to qualify for this weekend’s play-offs at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2025.

Later on in Thursday evening’s play, defending champions Canada beat Japan by 11-2, hosts Korea were 10-4 winners over Lithuania, and Sweden beat China by 8-4. All three of these teams have now also qualified for the play-offs.

Team Sweden celebrate their win against Korea © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Top versus bottom clash

On Thursday morning, defending champions Canada robbed Switzerland of their unbeaten record in an extra end when skip Rachel Homan drew her final stone onto the button to score one and win by 7-6.

Following this, the game between Switzerland and Lithuania was a top versus bottom affair. Regardless of position, Lithuania tested Switzerland until the very end.

In the seventh end Lithuania were leading by 6-4, and Alina Paetz — Switzerland’s fourth player — played a draw-shot to give her team four points and move into an 8-6 lead. The game remained close after this, going all the way to the last stone of the tenth end before Switzerland emerged as 9-8 winners.

After this game, Switzerland skip Silvana Tirinzoni said, “It was indeed a tough loss [this morning], but you hardly have any time to think about it.

“An hour later you are back on the ice again, but it seemed like we were still thinking a little from the morning game.”

Regarding her Lithuanian opponents, Tirinzoni said, “It’s hard to defend against great shot-making. It was a little bit sloppy from our side, but I don’t want to take anything away from them, they played amazing.”

Switzerland versus Lithuania © World Curling / Will Palmer

Canadian Eighth end steal

After beating the Swiss, Canada faced Japan in their evening game. By the eighth end of this game, Canada had built a 6-2 lead, and when Japan skip Sayaka Yoshimura was light with an attempted draw, the Canadians stole another five points to secure an 11-2 lead. Japan then conceded the game.

Following the game, Canada’s skip Rachel Homan said, “That was a really strong performance. We had a few learning opportunities this morning and we came out strong tonight.”

Sweden beat Korea in the morning session and then completed a perfect day with an 8-4 win over China. Against Korea, the Swedes held a 6-5 lead in the tenth end when skip, Anna Hasselborg, played a draw to score one more point and win the game by 7-5. Then, in the tenth end against China, Hasselborg hit out a China stone to score three points and claim the victory with a score of 8-4.

After this successful day, Anna Hasselborg said, “There’s always things to work on, but I’m very happy with our performance today.

“The team feels very comfortable out there. The one/two spot is the goal that we set ourselves, and we’re so happy that we have the chance for that with one day left.”

Korea bounced back from their defeat to Sweden with an evening 10-4 win over Lithuania.

By the eighth end in this game, Korea had built a 9-4 lead and when Lithuanian skip Virginija Paulauskaite misjudged the angle of her throw on an attempted hit-out of a Korean stone, she handed Korea a further single-point steal and a 10-4 victory. With this win, Korea joined the other three teams — leaders Switzerland as well as Canada and Sweden — in the weekend play-offs.

Seol Yeji and Kim Minji of Team Korea © World Curling / Will Palmer

Scotland hold strong

Behind these four qualifiers, China and Scotland currently share the vital fifth place. The Scots only had one game on Thursday, against Türkiye. In the fifth end, with the Scots ahead by 6-3, their fourth player Rebecca Morrison played a raise bump-up to score two more points and improve her team’s lead to 8-3.

The Scots went on to win by 10-6 and afterwards, their skip Sophie Jackson said, “That game felt like a bit of a battle at times, but we were still very much in control of the game.

“The team all feels in a very good spot. We’ve put ourselves in a strong position, so we’ve just got to control what we can.”

Before their loss to Sweden, China played Denmark. In the ninth end, with China leading by 7-5, their skip Wang Rui played a draw to score two more points and move her team’s lead onto 9-5. Denmark then conceded the game.

After this, Wang said, “We just kept to our own game-plan there, and we’re happy.”

Teams still fight for play-offs place

Behind the top six teams, Denmark, Norway, and Italy are still alive in the play-off hunt, with Japan and United States sitting behind them in joint tenth spot.

In the morning session, Türkiye beat Japan to record their first win so far. This game was tied at 3-3 as the teams played the tenth end, and when Türkiye’s skip Dilsat Yildiz hit out a Japan stone and kept her own in play, she scored one point for a 4-3 victory.

Afterwards, Türkiye’s third player Oznur Polat said, “We are very happy with that win, Japan are a very good team. We played that game with a lot of stones in the house, and that worked for us.”

Meanwhile, despite their valiant efforts against Switzerland, Lithuania are still looking for a first win.

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