Curlers take third place

New Zealand’s best young curlers are celebrating after putting in knock-out performances at the 2013 Pacific-Asia Junior Curling Championship.

The junior men’s side took out third place after making a clean sweep of five matches only to be beaten by Korea in the semifinal.

Junior men’s coach Liz Matthews says the boys proved themselves capable of mixing it with the best in the Pacific Asia region with wins against Australia, Japan and Korea and close games with China.

‘‘It bodes well for their future as only Brett Sargon ages out next year.’’

Ms Matthews says once a dedicated curling rink is built in Auckland there will be the possibility of further international events and a national league.

‘‘There will be more time to concentrate on practice rather than working to save money to travel to Naseby and to these overseas competitions.’’

The junior women’s team finished fourth with wins against Japan and Australia in the round-robin stages and had close games against top teams China and Korea.