[ritchiebaby]

And the fightback is on! The Scottish Women kept things tight to run Turkey out of stones in the last end and run out 7-4 winners to finish with 3 wins and 2 defeats. The 6 teams that shared 3rd place 3 hours ago are now down to 2 - China and Scotland. Sweden lead with 5 wins and Canada are 2nd with 4 wins.

The Women play Korea tomorrow afternoon and another win would keep them ahead of the chasing pack.

The Men play Korea in the morning and USA at night.

[ritchiebaby]

The Scottish Men beat Korea by 7-5 and USA by 6-5 after an extra end to keep their unbeaten record after 6 games.

However the Women are a bit erratic and after losing 5-8 to Korea, now have 3 wins and 3 defeats. They are still in 3rd place though, tied with 4 other teams, so all is not lost yet.

The Men play Switzerland tomorrow with the Women playing both unbeaten Sweden and also USA in 2 very important games.

[ritchiebaby]

The Men continue their great run of form by beating Switzerland 10-5 after 8 ends, with the assistance of 2 counts of 4 shots in the 2nd and 8th ends. They have now guaranteed their Semi-final place with 2 games still to go. Canada and USA have 5 wins each and Switzerland lie 4th with 4 wins. Germany, Norway and Sweden still have a chance to overtake Switzerland for the 4th place and even possibly tie with Canada and USA.

As far as the Women are concerned their goose is well and truly cooked, burnt to a cinder even, after their defeat by Sweden 4-10 this morning after being 3-3 at the halfway point, and then 4-11 tonight against USA (skipped by the delightfully named Madison Bear). Scotland even tried bringing in alternate Sophie Jackson to replace skip Rebecca Morrison, with Rebecca moving down to 3rd, replacing Amy MacDonald. This seemed to help Rebecca, but has certainly done nothing to help Sophie. Sweden and Canada were already qualified by lunchtime and there is a proper logjam behind them on 4 wins, featuring China, Korea, Norway, Switzerland and USA. Theoretically Scotland could get to 4 wins tomorrow, but as Norway play Switzerland and China play USA, the 2 winners of these games will reach 5 wins. Korea can also get to 5 wins if they beat Turkey.

The Men will play China and Sweden tomorrow with the Women playing only for pride against Russia.

[ritchiebaby]

Just back from my own curling adventures to discover the Scottish Men scored a perfect 9 in the round-robin by beating China 6-1 and Sweden by 7-3. Scotland will play Switzerland and Canada will play USA in the Semi-finals at 7pm tomorrow.

The Women's competition also provided a clear-cut result with unbeaten Sweden on top, followed by Canada, China and Norway. A shell-shocked Scotland lost to Russia by 6-7, leading to relegation to the B Division for next year's Championships. Sweden play Norway while Canada play China at 2pm tomorrow afternoon in their Semi-finals.

I'll be doing my own curling tomorrow night with at least 1 game and hopefully 2, so it might be Saturday before I report back.

[ritchiebaby]

The Women's competition has now finished with Sweden beating Norway 9-3 and Canada beating China 9-7 in the Semi-finals yesterday. Today's medal matches saw Canada win the Gold Medal by beating Sweden 7-4. China convincingly won Bronze, overcoming Norway by 11-5.

Scotland beat Switzerland 5-4 with a last stone draw, while Canada beat USA 8-5, in the Men's Semi-finals. Right this very minute, Scotland are playing Canada in the Gold Medal match and Switzerland are playing USA in the Bronze Medal game. No score in either game after the 1st end.

[ritchiebaby]

The Final matches have just finished with Canada beating Scotland 6-5 after an extra end to earn the Gold Medal. Canada had led 5-2 with only 2 ends to go but Scotland started to put pressure on Canada and scored a 2 and a 1 to take the game to an extra end. Scotland had the edge in the extra end, but a missed guard by the Scots gave Canada a chance and they took it with a straightforward last stone draw. In the Bronze Medal match, Switzerland beat USA 7-4 in a game that USA had led with 3 ends to go.

The Canadians end these Championships back on top to make up for their below-par performances in the Olympics. Scotland did great in the Men's, but the Women suffered relegation to the B Championships.

Men
GOLD - Canada
SILVER - Scotland
BRONZE - Switzerland

Women
GOLD - Canada
SILVER - Sweden
BRONZE - China

[ritchiebaby]

A photo of all the medal winners with Canada on the left and centre of the back row. Amy MacDonald, Scotland, (can't see her there but I might just need my specs) was voted the winner of the Sportswoman Award, while Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell (reclining) won the Sportsman Award.