Canada’s mixed curlers off to Olympics

LETHBRIDGE Canada’s Joanne Courtney and Reid Carruthers downed the previously unbeaten Latvian duo of Santa Blumberga and Andris Bremanis 10-5 in Friday night’s draw at the world mixed doubles championship.

The win clinched a berth for Canada in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where mixed doubles curling will make its debut as a medal sport.

Courtney and Carruthers will play in Saturday’s semifinal against China’s Rui Wang and Dexin Ba, last year’s silver medallists.

“They got us to the Olympics, but now they want to win a gold medal,” said national team coach Jeff Stoughton. “They know they have unfinished business here and they want to finish this off on the right note and I think they have a good shot.”

An 8-3 win over Scotland’s Gina Aitken and Bruce Mouat in the morning draw landed the Canadians in the quarter-final against Latvia.

After giving up a first-end deuce to Latvia, Canada rebounded with a go-ahead three in the second end, a steal of two in the third and one more in the fourth. Latvia clawed back with two in the fifth end and stole one more in the sixth. But Courtney’s takeout stuck for four in the seventh.

Meanwhile at the Humpty’s Champions Cup Grand Slam event in Calgary, Edmonton’s Kevin Koe defeated Sweden’s Niklas Edin 7-3 in Friday’s late round to improve to 3-1 atop Section A. Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., was a 5-1 winner over Braeden Moskowy of Winnipeg, improving to 3-1 atop Section C. John Epping of Toronto improved to 2-2 in Section A with a 5-3 win over John Shuster of Duluth, Minn.

In the late women’s draw, Jamie Sinclair of Blaine, Minn., got past Kerri Einarson of Winnipeg 7-6.