China top the rankings, Korea and Norway share second spot

Round-robin play continued at the Auchenharvie Leisure Centre on Tuesday 4 March with three sessions. China won both of their games of the day and are the sole leaders of the standings.

At the end of Day 3, China and Korea were co-leading the table with three wins and one loss each. They played each other in the morning, and China won in seven ends, 11-2.

Korea bounced back in the afternoon and won against Latvia, 10-4.

China continued their winning ways in the evening against Latvia, 10-5. Latvia dominated the first half of the game, they were leading by 4-2 at the break. However, China put a big score of six on the board in the sixth and stole two in the seventh, after which Latvia conceded the game.

England had a big win in the morning against Canada. England were up, 6-5, playing the eighth end with hammer. Canada tried their best to steal the end, but England skip Stewart Pimblett hit the semi-hidden Canada shot stone with his last, scored four and won, 10-5.

England’s Jason Kean celebrates their winning shot against Canada © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

Canada made up for their morning loss in the afternoon and beat Scotland, 12-6, due to scores of four in the third and seventh ends.

England attempted to make Tuesday a two-win day when they played Scotland in the clash of Home Nations in the evening. However, Scotland had other plans. They were leading the game by 6-5, playing the eighth end with hammer. Scotland skip Hugh Nibloe made a perfect draw to the four-foot to score a single and win the game, 7-5.

Title-defenders Norway had a perfect day in the office. They had a seven-end victory over United States in the morning (8-2), and another seven-end win against Japan in the evening, 8-4.

Norway celebrate their win against United States © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

Japan had earlier won against United States, 9-4. After that game, Japan second Kagami Hiroki said, “I’m very happy! I hope we can continue this steady performance.”

Sweden had started the tournament with three losses and picked up their first two wins on Monday. They continued their winning streak on Tuesday. In the morning, they won against Slovakia in a game of steals, where five out of the seven scored points (4-3) were stolen.

Sweden versus Slovakia © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

The Swedes kept their great form for the evening and picked up another win, this time against Italy, 6-5.

Italy had shown great form earlier and scored the highest number of points at the event so far against Slovakia.

After their 14-5 win, Italy’s Angela Menardi said, “We certainly didn’t expect to win with such a difference, because Slovakia is a very tough team for us. Maybe they were a little more tired, we were more concentrated. And in any case, we wanted to win, so we put everything into this game.”