27 April 2026
Estonia end Norway’s winning streak as Australia remain undefeated on day three
With nine sessions played, the ACE & Company World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2026 has now reached the half-way mark in the round-robin programme.
Group A
The Group A teams played twice on Monday, and this was another successful day for Australia.
Unbeaten so far, they came onto the ice to face Sweden as joint leaders along with Norway. They went on to beat the Swedes by 8-6 and then defeated Estonia, another strong challenger, by 8-6 to move into a clear lead on the rankings, retaining their unbeaten record, on five wins.
In the game against Sweden, the Swedes opened with a single point in the first end, but Australia responded quickly when Tahli Gill played a double take-out to score four points for a 4-1 lead in the second end. Australia stayed ahead after this and went on to win by 8-6.
After this win, Australia’s Dean Hewitt said, “Sweden played well there and we were a bit fortunate to get the four in the second end. That put us in a good position, and our aim then was just to keep the lead.”
In the fifth end of their later game against Estonia, with the score tied at 3-3, Australia’s Gill played a hit to score four points and move onto a 7-3 lead. Australia stayed in control from then on to win by 8-6 and preserve their unbeaten record.
After this game Tahli Gill said, “We’re at that midway point where you still have to keep your foot on the gas. We know that everyone here is so good and we have to play at our absolute best.”
Before playing Australia, Estonia had faced Norway in their morning game.
The Norwegians held a 3-2 lead as the teams played the fourth end. Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee then played a precise hit, to score four points and take a 6-3 lead. Estonia then went on to win by 7-6.
Norway then recovered from this loss with an extra end 8-7 win over China in their evening game. By the eighth end of this game, the Norwegians led by 7-5. But China’s Han Yu then played a hit to score two points to level the game at 7-7 and force an extra end. However, Norway then scored the one point needed to give them the win that puts them in second place behind Australia, on four wins and one loss.
This loss for China contrasted with their 8-3 win over Netherlands in their morning game. In this game, when the teams came to play the seventh end, China held a 5-3 lead. China’s Han Yu then played a draw, to score three points and improve her team’s lead to 8-3. The Dutch conceded at this point.
However, Netherlands then came back to beat Denmark by 7-5 in their evening game. By the sixth end, Netherlands led by 4-3 when Denmark’s Alexander Qvist missed a double take-out attempt to give up a steal of one and improve the Dutch lead to 5-3. Netherlands then went on to win after eight ends.
Meanwhile, Wednesday evening’s session saw New Zealand record their first win so far, beating France by 9-6. By the seventh end of this game, France had built a 6-3 lead, but then New Zealand’s Jessica Smith played a hit and stay to score a game-changing five points and move onto an 8-6 lead. New Zealand then won by 9-6.
Before that, New Zealand’s morning game against Denmark had been tight all the way until the final end. By the sixth end, New Zealand led by 4-2. Denmark’s Alexander Qvist then had a chance to score three with a tap-up but he caught a front guard and had to settle for two, levelling the game to 4-4. In the eighth end, a score of six points gave Denmark their first win so far, by 11-4.
Afterwards, Denmark’s Qvist said, “It was good to finally get the win. We’d played three tight games this week, so we woke up this morning and said now we need to win — it’s happened and it’s worked out. It was a tight game all the way, but at the end we came out on top, so we’re happy.”
His playing partner Karolina Jensen added, “We’re definitely happier now than we were last night.”
Sweden recovered from their morning loss to Australia with a 10-4 win over Japan, but had to survive a scare in the process. In the fifth end, with Sweden leading by 7-3, Japan had a chance to come right back into the game. Their male player Aoki Go tried to hit for five points, but was too thin, and could only score one, reducing Sweden’s lead to 7-4. After this, Sweden secured the 10-4 win.
Earlier, Japan had beaten France by 10-5 and they now share third place on the rankings with Estonia and Sweden.
Group B
The Group B teams only had one game on Monday and in this, their fourth round-robin session, two of the games went to extra ends while two were won on last end single steals.
Joint leaders Canada and Italy faced each other in this session. Unsurprisingly, this was a tight game, with the lead changing hands four times and never more than one point between the teams.
The score was tied at 5-5 after eight ends to force an extra end. And in that extra end, Italy’s Stefania Constantini misjudged the angles on a raise double take-out attempt, giving Canada a steal of one point and a 6-5 win that puts them into a clear lead — still unbeaten — at the top of the rankings.
Afterwards, Canada’s Kadriana Lott said, “Before going on, I said ‘let’s just have some fun and throw some good shots’. I think that was probably our best game so far this week. We’re pretty proud of how we performed.”
Her playing partner and husband Colton added, “We tried to keep putting pressure on all the way.”
Behind these two teams, six teams sit in joint third spot, on two wins.
Czechia faced a United States team still looking for their first win and, in the sixth end, with the Czechs leading by 6-5, Petra Klimova played a hit to score five points and move her team onto an 11-5 lead. The Americans conceded after seven ends, handing the Czechs an 11-6 win that puts them into joint third place.
Korea faced Germany and, in the fifth end of this game, with the score tied at 3-3, Germany’s Kim Sutor played a hit to score two points and take a 5-3 lead. After this, Germany won by 7-4, with a single steal in the eighth end, to share third place.
Scotland played Finland in tightly contested game. In the eighth end, the score was tied at 7-7 when a draw by Finland’s Lotta Immonen caught a front guard and failed to get inside the counting Scottish stone, to give the Scots a steal of one and an 8-7 win. Scotland now join the third-place pile-up.
Afterwards Scotland’s Angus Bryce said, “We started off really good, then they put a bit of pressure on us in the middle. Then we decided we might as well give it our all.”
And abut the eighth end steal he said, “We asked the question and got a miss out of them.”
Hungary played Switzerland in the fifth game of this session, and this was another tight game that went all the way to an extra end. With the score tied at 6-6 in that end, Hungary’s Udvardi-Palancsa Dorottya played a precision draw to put her final stone into position to score one and win by 7-6. This result means that Hungary are also now part of the group sitting in joint third place on the rankings.
Speaking later, Udvardi-Palancsa Dorottya said, “That was really exciting and we hope that’s the start of us moving on.”
Meanwhile her partner Tatar Lorinc said, “I think we controlled that game – obviously not in the eighth end, but otherwise I think we pretty much had them under control.”
Seniors
The ACE & Company World Senior Curling Championships have also now hit the half-way mark in the round robin schedule, and the Group rankings are starting to take shape.
In the women’s competition, Group A and B have played two games, with Canada and Sweden topping Group A and Norway and Scotland atop of Group B, all with two wins and no losses. Group C and D have played three, where Lithuania (Group C) and Germany (Group D) have gone unbeaten so far.
The men’s competition sees Group A’s Canada and Latvia, Group B’s England and United States, Group C’s Scotland and Group D’s Korea, Norway and Switzerland all sitting on two wins no losses. Group E and F have played three games, with Sweden (E) and Czechia (F) undefeated so far.
All ACE & Company World Mixed Doubles games will be broadcast on the Curling Channel, however, there may be restrictions due to broadcast partner agreements.
Follow live scores and results here.
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