Curling: Kiwi women through to semis

The New Zealand women's team scraped into the semifinals at the Pacific Curling Championships in Karuizawa, Japan, yesterday.

The team of Bridget Becker (skip), Brydie Donald, Marissa Jones, and Natalie Campbell all learnt the sport in Otago.

New Zealand finished fourth in the double round-robin competition behind China (seven wins), Japan (six) and Korea (four).

New Zealand won two of its four games in the first of the double rounds in section play.

But it was not able to sustain the effort and lost all four games in the second round.

New Zealand lost to world champion China 8-5, Japan 12-1, Korea 7-4 and Australia 11-8.

The loss to Australia was critical and put New Zealand's semifinal chances under pressure.

The New Zealand players had to sit nervously on the sidelines and hope that Korea beat Australia.

If Australia won it would have forced a tie-breaker between New Zealand and Australia for the fourth spot.

Korea beat Australia 10-3 and New Zealand had scraped into the semifinals.

The New Zealand men's team had to beat Korea overnight to reach the semifinal.

China, with a 9-0 win-loss record and Japan (8-1) topped the table and are certain qualifiers.

Australia, Korea and New Zealand all have a three-win and six-loss record and are battling for the other two semifinal places.

The Australians play Chinese Taipei, a team that is ranked sixth, and are expected to make the semifinals.