Gushue helps Canada stay in the mix in Aberdeen
He and Keri Einarson are 4-1 in world mixed doubles after splitting games Wednesday
Hours after losing for the first time this week, the Canadian duo of Keri Einarson and Brad Gushue responded with an 8-3 win over South Korea Wednesday to remain in playoff contention at the world mixed doubles curling championship in Aberdeen, Scotland.
However, while Manitoban Einarson and Gushue of St. John’s were obviously pleased with a bounce-back result that keeps Canada tied for first place in its pool, satisfaction was sobered by a lookahead at their Thursday schedule and what might be, for them, the hardest part of the preliminary round.
At 4-1, Canada is tied with Italy and Scotland for first place in Group A and it just happens the Italians and tourney host Scots provide the opposition for Einarson/gushue on Thursday.
“We’ve got a tough day ahead of us against two top teams tomorrow, so we wanted to make sure we got this one, which puts us in and 4-1, and now we’re in pretty good shape,” Gushue said after the victory over Koreans Ji Yoon Kim and Si Woo Moon.
In that game, Canada led 4-0 after three ends, Korea rallied a bit to make it 4-3 before giving up three in the sixth end. A steal of one by the Canadians in the seventh led to the early shaking of hands.
“I missed a couple of shots in the fifth end (when Korea stole a point), which put us in trouble and I was overly cautious on (Einarson’s) line call on the last one, but I felt we both played a solid game and getting the three in the sixth kind of put that game away,” said Gushue.
Einarson and Gushue suffered their first loss Wednesday morning when they dropped an 8-5 decision to Australia’s Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt.
While Australia is not known as a producer of powerhouse curling teams and the Aussies’ win over Canada was their first this week, Gill and Hewitt have been semifinalists at a previous world mixed doubles championship.
It’s indicative of one of the differences between the original four-player game and the relatively new mixed doubles discipline which has produced other competitive teams out of Spain, Hungary and New Zealand, countries which are rarely seen at other world curling championships.
The 20 teams competing in Aberdeen are divided into two pools. The top finishers in each pool after preliminary play go directly to the playoff semifinals. The second- and third-place teams in each pool cross over tfor qualification games to decide the other semifinalists.
The competition concludes Sunday.
Canada has been a medallist at the last three world mixed doubles championship, but Gushue and Einarson are looking to become the first Canadian entry to win gold in the 13 years of the championship.
There’s even more at stake at this year’s competition. The countries finishing in the top seven overall in Aberdeen will gain mixed doubles berths 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Einarson and Gushue finish their preliminary-round schedule Friday against the Czech Republic and Russian Curling Federation.