China is expected to win the Pacific championships for the third successive year and qualify for next years world championships and the 2010 Olympics.
China has beaten Korea 7-5, Japan 8-7, New Zealand 13-2 and yesterday beat Australia 8-6, though it was a struggle.
China had a commanding 8-4 lead but allowed Australia to come back into the game by scoring singles on the last two ends.
The coach of China, Daniel Rafael, from Montreal, was not pleased.
He wanted the scoring Australian rocks to be blasted off the rink.
"When we were four points up with just two ends to play we shouldn't have left any rocks in play," he said.
"You don't want to be playing fancy shots at this stage of the game. If you can't hit it you just play through.
"We are not yet playing to our full potential," Rafael said.
"We are only playing at a 65% level of what we should be playing."
Next year's world championships will be held in Korea, so that country gets automatic entry.
It means that just one team qualifies for the world championships.
"Our wish is for us to finish top in the round robin and for Korea to beat Japan in the semifinals," Rafael said.
"We then go to the world championships whether we win or lose."
New Zealand started the championships in style with a 13-3 win over Australia.
But it was not able to sustain the standard and lost its next two games, to China 2-13 and Korea 4-11.
Yesterday's game against Korea was even for the first four ends, with Korea leading 4-3.
But New Zealand dropped a four on the next end and that was the end of the game.
"We tried to blast them out but the stones went on the wrong angle and we kept hitting our own stones," skip Bridget Becker said.
Korea stole a one and a two on the next two ends to make the game safe.
The other members of the New Zealand team yesterday were Catherine Inder, Marisa Jones and Brydie Donald.
Becker remains confident New Zealand can win its remaining games and qualify in the top three for the semifinals.
Japan has two wins, and Korea and New Zealand one each.
Australia has yet to win a game.
