China’s curlers clean up to book Games berth
PRAGUE — The Chinese women’s curling team booked its place at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics in emphatic fashion at a qualification event on Saturday.
China, captained by 2009 world champion Wang Bingyu, secured its berth by beating Italy 11-4 in the Czech city of Pilsen.
Italy still had a chance to earn a place at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea when it faces Denmark, which finished third overall in the round robin, in Sunday’s second qualification game, the winner of which joins the nine teams that have already qualified.
The men’s and women’s curling competitions in Pyeongchang will feature 10 teams each, with seven teams qualifying thanks to their points totals from the 2016 and 2017 world championships, two countries going through via the Pilsen event, and South Korea qualifying automatically as the host.
For the first time, mixed doubles curling will be contested at the Winter Games, with eight teams to compete in a round-robin preliminary round and the top four finishers going through to the medal round.
In Saturday’s game, Italy opened the scoring when skip Diana Gaspari drew her final stone of the first end to score three points.
China, however, dominated from then on, stealing three points in the third end and then four points in the fourth on the way to an 8-4 halftime lead.
A score of one point in the sixth end and further Chinese single-point steals in the seventh and eighth ends were enough to persuade Italy to concede after with the score at 11-4.
For China’s skip Wang and third Zhou Yan, this will be a third appearance at an Olympic Games, having previously featured at Vancouver 2010, where they took the bronze medals, and Sochi 2014.
“This is the third time at the Games — it feels so great,” said Wang.
“It wasn’t easy for me or the team but we tried our best and we’re going there. We’re so happy!
“I think everyone was a little nervous, and we made some mistakes, but we didn’t lose ourselves, we just kept calm and played one rock at a time.
“This is a big thing for me and the team. I think everyone at home will be proud of us.”
Earlier, in a dramatic final men’s round-robin session, Denmark beat Italy 8-3 to consolidate its position as the first-placed playoff qualifiers.
Italy and host Czech Republic also made the men’s playoffs.