[ritchiebaby]

China succumbed to a dominant Scotland 3-8 in the Mens' competition today. This win leaves Scotland in 4th equal place with 3 wins and 2 defeats along with Switzerland and USA. Korea lead with 6 wins, with Canada and Norway on 4 wins and 2 defeats. Tomorrow the Scots will play Italy in the morning and unbeaten Korea in the evening session.

The Scots Women lead from the fifth end onwards to defeat Japan by 9-7 and retain their leading position with Canada and Sweden. They now play USA tomorrow afternoon.

[ritchiebaby]

Today was a good day for both Scottish teams. The Women beat USA by 7-2 in a fairly straightforward test. The Scots still sit joint first with Sweden on 6 wins, after Canada were trounced 10-1 by bottom of the table Japan after only 6 ends. Canada lie in third place on 5 wins, with Switzerland and Korea tied in fourth place after 4 wins.

The Men started well with a dogged 7-5 win over Italy, but ultimately fell to a enthralling 7-8 defeat against Korea after an extra end. The Scots final stone in the extra end finished just millimetres short to allow the Koreans to earn the first qualifying spot. Scotland sit in fourth equal place with Norway and Switzerland on 4 wins, behind Canada and USA on 5 wins and Korea on 7 wins.

Tomorrow sees the Women finish their round robin games against Canada, then Russia. One win would be enough to give them a qualifying place on Friday. The Men have a rest day tomorrow, but play Turkey and Canada on Thursday. Two wins would be perfect, but even one might be enough, depending on Switzerland's efforts against Norway and Korea, also on Thursday.

[ritchiebaby]

The Scottish Women made sure of qualifying for the 1v2 game on Friday with an excellent 8-5 win over Canada this morning. They eventually lost 7-8 to Russia after an extra end in their second game, but have done brilliantly for a team who only qualified through the B competition last month.

Although Scotland have now finished their round robin games with 7 wins, there is still a lot for the other leading teams to play for. Also sure of qualification are Sweden who are currently in second place with 6 wins and a game against Switzerland tomorrow. The Swiss have 5 wins, alongwith Canada and Korea who play USA and Russia respectively tomorrow. USA and Russia have 4 wins each so both have an outside chance of qualification.

Five teams challenging for the remaining two places should make for an interesting time tomorrow afternoon. The players involved will be watching the other scoreboards and nerves will be jangling.

[ritchiebaby]

The Scottish Men did the business today, although their final win went right down to the wire. They finished strongly against Turkey this morning to win 7-4, after being 3-4 down at the fifth end. In their second game they were never behind against Canada, but still had to go to an extra end for victory by 9-8.

Korea will play USA in the 1v2 game tomorrow, with Scotland qualifying in 3rd place. They await the winner of the tie-breaker between Canada and Norway in the 3v4 game.

The Womens' round robin also concluded today where previously qualified Scotland were joined by Sweden, who beat Switzerland 6-4, and Canada, who won 9-3 against USA, for tomorrow's games. Scotland will play Sweden in the 1v2 game tomorrow and Canada await the winner of the tie-breaker game between Korea and Switzerland for the 3v4 game.

Just in case you've forgotten the winner of the 1v2 games go directly to the Gold Medal game. The loser will play the winner of the 3v4 game in a further game to decide the second team in the Gold Medal game. The loser of this further game will play the loser of the 3v4 game for the Bronze Medal.

[St Charles Owl]

Got to love the complicated endings to these tournaments but it does mean the teams that make the final 4 get to play at least 2 more matches and possibly 3!!

[ritchiebaby]

SCO - it also means that a team scraping in as fourth place can still win the Gold Medal. Conversely, it also means that finishing as runaway leader doesn't guarantee a Medal. I'm not a fan of this system, but with two games to go in the round robin there could be 7 or 8 teams in with a chance of a medal, so there is guaranteed tension and excitement in the later stages.

The Scottish Women were beaten 6-9 by Sweden in the 1v2 game and now have to play Canada in the Semi-final tomorrow after Canada had beaten Korea 7-5 in the 3v4 game. Korea had earlier beaten Switzerland 7-5 in the tie-breaker. A poor third end for the Scots saw them go 1-5 down and it is very difficult to come back from there. The winners of the Semi-final will play Sweden for the Gold and Silver Medals on Sunday and the losers will play Korea in the Bronze Medal match, also on Sunday.

As third-placed finishers, the Scottish Men were waiting on the tie-breaker game between Norway and Canada. Norway won this one by 8-7. In the 3v4 game the result was in doubt until the final stone, with which the Norwegians failed with their attempted draw shot. Scotland had been 5-7 down going into the last end and they managed to score a 2, forcing the game into an extra end. Scotland now face Korea, who had lost 5-7 to USA, in the Semi-final on Saturday. The winners will play USA in the Gold/Silver game, with Norway awaiting the losers in the Bronze Medal game, both on Sunday.

[ritchiebaby]

Amazingly enough, after almost every Scottish game being closely fought, the two Semi-finals this morning were completely one-sided.

The Scottish Men's team were behind the whole game against Korea after losing a 3 in the first end. They scored 2 in the second end, but immediately lost a 2 and a 1 in the next two ends to fall too far behind. Scotland eventually lost 4-11 to be relegated to the Bronze Medal match tomorrow.

The Scottish Women had a much better result with a dominant 13-2 win over Canada. Scotland opened with a 3 and lost a 1 in the second end. The game was over as a contest after the Scots scored 2,4,3,1 in the next four ends to guarantee themselves a medal with the Final against Sweden.

In the Women's Final this afternoon (9 hours time difference), Sweden and Scotland both started well and Scotland led 4-3 after four ends. The Swedes then took control with a 3 and a 2 in the fifth and sixth ends to leave the Scots playing catch-up under pressure. They eventually lost 7-10, but did an amazing job, considering they had to qualify from the B competition.

Sophie Jackson, the Scottish skip, said, “I’m a bit gutted, but we’ve had a really good week. I’m speechless really, we’ve done way better than we expected, so we’re still happy. I’m so proud of my team, we’ve done so much this season, it’s been a really long season.”

Medallists
GOLD - SWEDEN
SILVER - SCOTLAND
BRONZE - CANADA (after a 6-3 win over Korea)

[ritchiebaby]

It was more of the same fare for the Scottish Men today. They lost the first 3 ends to go 0-7 down against Norway, leaving them far too much to do at this level of curling. The Scots conceded the game after 8 ends with the score at 3-10 leaving the Norwegians in Bronze Medal position. Fourth position is a creditable finish at World Championship level, but after beating Norway in the 3v4 game on Friday, the team will feel slightly disappointed.

In the far more exciting Gold/Silver game, Korea defeated USA 5-4 with a last stone take-out to win the Gold Medals for their first ever Men's medal.

Medallists
GOLD - KOREA
SILVER - USA
BRONZE - NORWAY

World Juniors - Podium

Men - USA, Korea, Norway. Women - Scotland, Sweden, Canada.

[ritchiebaby]

To conclude these reports I have uploaded/downloaded (you'll know which one it is, but I can never remember!) some photographs from the World Curling Federation Facebook page.

The first is of the Sportsmanship Awards winners as voted for by the other players.
Norwegian Bronze Medallist Magnus Trulsen was the men’s winner and Sweden’s Gold Medallist Jennie Waahlin won for the women.


Some photos of the Scottish competitors in various states of composure.