Nation’s best unbeaten at curling World Cup

Canada is in excellent shape at the inaugural World Cup of Curling. Rachel Homan’s Ottawa rink, Kevin Koe’s Calgary foursome and the Edmonton-based mixed doubles team of Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres all are unbeaten through two days of the event. Walker and Muyres (3-0) downed Maria Komarova and Daniil Goryachev of Russia 9-1 Wednesday night before beating Therese Westman and Robin Ahlberg of Sweden 8-2. Homan (2-0) crushed Min Ji Kim of South Korea 12-0 on Thursday. Koe (3-0) pounded Bruce Mouat of Scotland 11-1 before knocking off Masaki Iwai of Japan 8-2 on Thursday. The top two teams in each division will play for championships on Saturday and Sunday. The World Cup features four tournaments of team and mixed doubles competition involving the top curling countries in the world. Each country determines its representatives for each leg. The second stop is Dec. 5-9 in Omaha, Neb., followed by the third in Jonkoping, Sweden, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3. The grand final is May 8-12 in Beijing.