Skip Sean Becker continued his outstanding form with a superb final stone that gave New Zealand a tight 9-7 win over Japan at Naseby yesterday.
New Zealand held an 8-7 lead before the final end on the fourth day of the Pacific Curling championships at the Maniototo Curling International rink.
Japan had shots in the circle before the New Zealand skip pushed out the shot stone to take one shot and the win.
But the New Zealand team was not so lucky in its next game, against defending champion China, losing 9-7.
New Zealand held a 7-6 lead after eight of the 10 ends, but China took two shots on the ninth end and led 8-7.
New Zealand held the final stone on the 10th end but Becker just failed to remove the scoring Chinese rock with his last stone.
The skill and coolness of skip Wang Fengchun proved decisive as he shut New Zealand out on the final two ends.
China gained its fourth win of the championships when it beat Chinese-Taipei 12-3.
The strong Korean combination had two wins and stays at the top of the points table with six wins.
China and New Zealand share second spot with five wins, Australia has three wins, Japan two and Chinese-Taipei has lost its seven games.
Korea beat Australia 5-3 in its first game then had a 9-3 win over Chinese Taipei.
Australia kept its semifinal hopes alive with a seventh-round 7-2 win over Japan.
Australia finished runner-up to China in last year's Pacific championships in Beijing, then went on to finish sixth at the world championships.
But it needs to get to the world championships again to confirm a place at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.
In the women's section, defending champion China remains unbeaten and leads with five wins after six rounds.
Japan has four wins.
In yesterday's game China beat Korea 8-3.
Japan has had an 11-5 win over New Zealand and a 9-0 thumping of Australia.
New Zealand has only had one win and looks to be out of contention for a place in the three team post-section round.
