9 December 2025
China Men and Japan Women claim first play-off spots at the Olympic Qualification Event
Day four at the Olympic Qualification Event saw the first two nations secure their places in the play-offs and progress one step closer to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
In the men’s competition, China continued their undefeated run through the round-robin stage to earn the first spot in the qualification rounds beginning on Wednesday (10 December).
In the morning session they defeated New Zealand by 7-2, then followed that with a 9-3 victory over Korea in the evening.
To complete his win against Korea, China skip Xu Xiaoming scored four points with a take-out in the eighth end, to finish the game with a 100% performance.
Behind China, United States sits in second place on the rankings, thanks to a 7-4 win over Poland, then a 6-5 defeat of New Zealand.
The Americans did not have to play their last stone of the game against New Zealand to complete this win, and they are now within touching distance of the play-offs.
After their game against Poland, American skip Daniel Casper said, “we need to play a lot better than we are right now. We’re not playing the greatest, but we’re happy with our record. We’ve not been playing up to standard and we’re still in there – it’s hard to complain about that.”
Three teams share third place in the men’s rankings and still have a chance to make it to the play-offs.
They include Netherlands, who had two wins on Monday. They first beat Philippines by 10-4. In the seventh end of this game, the Dutch held a 6-4 lead when their skip Wouter Goesgens hit out a Philippines stone, to score four points for the 10-4 scoreline, after which Philippines conceded the game.
The Dutch then faced Poland, and by the seventh end, they had built a 4-2 lead. Skip Goesgens then played a nose-hit to add three more points and move his team’s lead onto 7-2. The Netherlands then went on to win by 9-2.
Later Goesgens said, “we’re definitely back in it now. We just need to keep focusing on our own play, keep adapting as we go on, and see where it gets us.”
The other two teams sharing third place and still capable of making the play-offs are Japan and Philippines.
Japan beat Korea by 8-5 in their morning game but lost by 9-7 to Philippines in the evening.
In that game Philippines led Japan by 8-7 going into the tenth end. With the last shot of the game, Japan’s Yanagisawa Riku had a difficult attempt to come in off a winger and remove the Philippines shot stone, but just got the angles slightly wrong, giving up a steal of one and giving Philippines the 9-7 win.
After this, Philippines skip Marc Pfister said, “that was really important for us to have a chance at the play-offs.”
First women’s play-off spot claimed
Japan became the first women’s team to qualify for the play-offs when they beat Türkiye by 10-5 in Monday afternoon’s fifth session, staying undefeated.
At the fifth end break, Japan held a controlled 6-3 lead. Türkiye conceded in the eighth end after skip Yoshimura Sayaka picked out a lone stone for two for a 10-5 victory.
Yoshimura said, “as a team we are in good condition, and it’s getting better and better. From here, we’ll try to do our best and get more accurate.”
Behind them, Norway sit second on the rankings with a 4-1 record.
In this session they played Australia and were helped when the Australians gave up a steal of four in the third end. Norway stayed in control and sealed the deal with three in the ninth for a 12-5 win.
Norway skip Marianne Roervik said, “we’re feeling really good right now. We played really well and we got that big steal of four in the third end.”
She added, “it’s a little stressful and the tension is going up with each game.”
Germany beat Czechia by 9-4 and United States were 8-6 winners over Estonia. These two teams share third place on the table.
“That was a weird game, it was a roller-coaster” said German skip Sara Messenzehl. “We started super good then we didn’t capitalise.”
“We’re really nervous – the Olympics is the biggest thing you can achieve and we know we still have a shot to go there. Everything counts now, so that’s the pressure that’s behind us.”
Lastly, United States faced Estonia. As the teams played the tenth end, Estonia held a 6-5 lead. But with the last stone of the end, American skip Tabitha Peterson played a tap-back to score three points and win by 8-6 to keep the American play-off hopes alive.
HOW TO watch
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