Winter Games: Medals at stake in curling fours

It should be a tense final day at the Winter Games curling competition in Naseby today.

Semifinals and medal games in both the men's fours and the mixed doubles will be played at the Maniototo Curling International rink.

Wednesday night's eighth round confirmed the three playoff spots in the men's fours competition with two rounds to play.

The three nations in the field which will participate in December's eight-team Olympic qualifying event - New Zealand, Japan and South Korea - will fill the top places. The last two rounds, finishing last night, were determining the final rankings.

Korea's accuracy helped it beat New Zealand 5-2, while Australia controlled the second half of its game against New Zealand A to win 8-3.

Japan made its intention clear from the outset against China when skip Yusuke Morozumi made an angled raise takeout to score three in the first end, and went on to win 7-5.

After losing two of its first three matches, Japan is the form side with six straight wins.

The three leading sides had comfortable wins in yesterday's ninth round. South Korea beat New Zealand A 8-2, New Zealand defeated China 9-3, and Japan downed Australia 8-3.

Japan has the best draw shot distance, used to rank teams with the same number of wins, and before last night's final round was odds-on to fill the top spot and qualify directly for the final.

If that eventuates, New Zealand and South Korea will play the sole semifinal to find Japan's opponent in the gold-medal game.

In the mixed doubles, Australia and China had already been confirmed as semifinalists before the afternoon round.

Both were then beaten. England upset Australia 6-4 to record its second win, and New Zealand A beat China 6-5 on the last stone to secure the third semifinal place.

Sean Becker said he and his sister, New Zealand A team-mate Bridget, were looking forward to the playoffs.

''With the little practice that we had leading into this, we're quite pleased to still be in it.''

That left the remaining place to go to the winner of New Zealand's game against Japan and, in another last-stone decider, New Zealand scored the single shot it needed by millimetres to win 5-4.

''That was a real tight game,'' New Zealand's Hans Frauenlob said.

''Both sides played really well, and it came down to us needing to draw to the button and hope to steal for the win. Nat [Campbell] was great. She made some big shots in the second half of the game.''

 

Add a Comment