Qualification games set at BKT World Women’s 2026

It was the final game to finish on the ice in the last of twenty round-robin sessions, but Turkiye beat Italy by 10-7 on Friday evening to qualify for the play-offs at the BKT World Women’s Curling Championship for the first time ever.

This game came down to a miss by Italy’s skip Stefania Constantini in the tenth end, as she tried to nudge out two Turkiye stones to force an extra end.

Earlier in the day, Turkiye had beaten Australia by 7-5 to set up this winner-takes-all qualification game decider, and Turkiye will now go on to face Japan on Saturday morning.

After their historic win, Turkiye’s Oznur Polat said, “We are very, very happy, and proud because we are the first Turkiye team to make it to the play-offs. It’s been fifteen years, so it’s very important for us.”

Turkiye celebrate their win that qualifies them for the World Women’s play-offs for the first time © World Curling / Anil Mungal

In this final session, Japan had faced Canada, and although both teams had already qualified for the play-offs, the winner would take the direct route to the semi-final. On the way to this game, Japan had beaten United States by 8-1 in the afternoon session, while Canada were comfortable six-end 11-2 winners over Australia.

Kerri Einarson, Canada © World Curling / Anil Mungal

In the eighth end against Japan, Canada led by 4-3 when their skip Kerri Einarson had a chance to score five more points. However, her double take-out jammed a Japan stone on a back stone on the way out, and she had to settle for a score of two points and a 6-3 lead. Canada went on to win by 6-5 and now take the direct route to the semi-finals, where they await the winner of the qualification game between Turkiye and Japan.

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Earlier in the day, Korea had beaten China by 6-4 with both teams still battling for a place in the play-offs. In the sixth end, China held a 3-2 lead when Korean skip Gim Eunji played a draw inside four Chinese stones, to score two points and take a 4-3 lead. After this, Korea went on to win by 6-4, and this result means that they became the fifth team to qualify for the play-offs.

Speaking later, Korea skip Gim Eunji said, “Going into this game, we knew it was going to be important, so at the beginning we were being defensive, but after the fifth end we were a bit more aggressive and I think that’s how we got the win in the end.”

Team Korea before their evening game © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Korea went on to beat Denmark by 7-4 and now face Sweden in the qualification games.

Sweden only had one game on Friday and they lost that to Switzerland by 3-7. This win by the Swiss, added to their earlier 6-4 win over Italy, means that they finished at the top of the rankings, and go straight to the semi-finals, with automatic last stone advantage.

Speaking after her win over Italy, Swiss skip Xenia Schwaller said, “It’s amazing. We knew going into that game that if we won, we’d go to the semi-finals. It’s really cool to not have to play that extra game.”