China dominated the Pacific Curling championships for the second year in a row when it won gold medals in both the men's and women's events.
The men's team of Jia Liang Zang, Xiao Ming Xu, Rui Liu and skip Feng Chun Wang gained its second successive win when it beat Japan 8-5 in the final at the Maniototo Curling International rink yesterday.
The women's team of Yan Zhou, Qingshuang Yue, Yin Liu and skip Bingyu Wang won its third successive title when it beat Korea 9-4.
"Our goal was just to qualify for the world championships," coach Daniel Rafael said. "The gold medals are a bonus."
The Chinese women's team is ranked third in the world and has already qualified for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.
The men are ranked 10th and it was more critical for them to get back to the world championships and pick up enough points to get to the Olympics.
Rafael, a Canadian, has worked wonders with the Chinese players since becoming chief coach.
"The biggest problem I've had is getting the team to control their emotions," he said.
The Chinese women are an accomplished combination but the game remained even at 4-4 when they took a single on the sixth end.
"They were complacent for the first part of the game but realised they were here to won the gold medal when we got two on the seventh end," Rafael said.
Confidence came into the Chinese game when skip Wang played her last stone on the sixth end when three shots down on the head. She pushed out the shot stone and nestled close to the inner circle.
The tactical skills of the Chinese became evident on the seventh end when they put two early stones into the circle and then put in a series of blocks to frustrate the Koreans.
The eighth end was close, with skip Wang drawing the shot with her final stone. But it was close and the umpire was called to measure the shot.
Patience was the key as the Chinese men team Japan. Japan was full of confidence because it had already qualified for its first world championships since 2005 by finishing in the top two.
"Japan has a very good team and we just had to wait for them to make a mistake," Rafael said.
It was a tight game with the scores level at 3-3 after five ends. But a three on the next end gave China a cushion.
Japan came back with two on the next end, but China then consolidated its win with singles on the eighth and 10th ends.
When China had the lead it cleared the decks and put in blocks to make sure Korea did not have scoring shots in the circle.
