7 December 2025
Philippines and China lead men’s Olympic Qualification field
After Saturday’s second men’s session, Philippines – newcomers at this level – share the lead on two wins, following up a 6-2 morning win over New Zealand with an evening 9-3 defeat of Poland.
Also on two wins at the top of the table are China.
The morning game between Philippines and New Zealand was tight until the ninth end, when with Philippines leading by 3-2, their skip Marc Pfister had a free draw to score three and take a 6-2 win.
Against Poland, Philippines scored threes in the fourth and eighth ends on their way to victory. In the eighth, Pfister cleared out a Polish stone to secure his 9-3 win.
After the New Zealand game, Philippines skip Marc Pfister said, “that was really important for us – starting with a win is a comfortable boost for us. We need to play the same now, keeping the level high and trying to control the games.”
Following their loss to Philippines, the New Zealanders bounced back against Korea, who had beaten Poland earlier, by 7-5. In the tenth end, with the score tied at 6-6, New Zealand skip Anton Hood drew his last stone into the four-foot to score one and win by 7-6.
China share the lead, thanks to an 8-6 morning win over Netherlands and then a 9-8 victory over United States, completed with a score of two in the tenth end when United States skip Daniel Casper was heavy on his final draw.
Later, China skip Xu Xiaoming said, “That’s been a good start and it’ll be good if we can play every game, every end like this.”
Earlier, United States had beaten Japan. This game was tight in the first half, with three blank ends and the teams going into the break tied at just 1-1. After this, the first break-through came when Japan’s fourth player Yanagisawa Riku missed an attempted double take-out to give the Americans a steal of two and a 3-1 lead.
Then, in the ninth end, with the Americans now leading by 3-2, their skip Daniel Casper delivered a double take-out at the back of the house to score two points and seal a 5-2 win.
Later, skip Casper said, “we’ve come in here and it’s a new environment for us. We haven’t played a lot of these teams and getting off to a great start is great.”
Japan bounced back from their loss to the Americans with a 7-5 win over Netherlands, sealed with a double take-out for two in the tenth end.
The women had just one game on Saturday where Japan and Türkiye emerged as joint leaders of the field at 2-0.
Türkiye faced Czechia and as the teams played the tenth end, the Turks held a 7-5 lead. Skip Dilsat Yildiz made a takeout for the win, 8-5.
This was a tight game between Japan and Germany, the game was back and fourth tied 4-4 after six ends and 6-6 after nine.
In the tenth, Japan skip Yoshimura Sayaka played a short runback to score two and win the game by 8-6.
Australia played Estonia where the game turned in the fourth end after Australia skip Helen Williams wrecked her final stone of the end on a front guard, giving up a steal of four for an 8-1 deficit.
This led to Estonia’s first win when a pleased Estonia skip, Kerli Laidsalu said, “That win feels really good, and it feels like we are in the competition now. We had a better focus on stone placement, reading the ice and communication today, so it is on we go.”
Norway faced United States, in a game where the Americans played without their skip Tabitha Peterson.
The Norwegians started off strong, leading 3-0 after two ends. But United States clawed back with three in the fourth, and a steal of two in the fifth after wrecking a guard, to take the lead.
Playing the ninth end, United States held a 7-5 lead. Norway’s fourth player Kristin Skaslien then had a chance to score three points and take a lead, but her final stone hit a guard and she settled for just two points, to level the game at 7-7.
In the last end, Skaslien needed to draw to the four-foot but was heavy, leaving United States with the winning point, 8-7.
Speaking later, United States third Cory Thiesse said, “Tabitha just woke up feeling a little under the weather this morning. We wanted her to have enough rest to play for the rest of the week, so we decided to go with this line-up. We had a fluid line-up last year, I skipped a lot last year, so it was a case of we have done this before and we can do it again.”
HOW TO TO watch
All OQE games will be broadcast on the Curling Channel, however, there may be restrictions due to broadcast partner agreements.
The Curling Channel OQE Event Pass is available here.
Follow the live scores and results here.
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