Homan secures top seed at curling playdowns
The Canadian team’s numbers speak for themselves at the world women’s curling championship this week.
A perfect 11-0 round-robin record. An overall shooting percentage of 88.2 per cent. An impressive 91 points scored to just 47 against.
Skip Rachel Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes ran the table at the national championship and they’re three wins away from doing it again at Centre 200.
Canada secured the top seed Friday afternoon with an efficient 8-2 win over Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison. The result locked up a semifinal berth for the Ottawa-based side and ensured they’ll be playing for a medal on Sunday.
“The bigger the game, the better they play,” said team coach Don Bartlett. “And you can’t teach that.”
Homan scored three in the second end and stole a pair in the fifth when Morrison was light on a draw. Scotland conceded after the Canadian skip drew for a pair in the seventh.
As the first seed, Canada will open playoff games with hammer and have choice of stone colour.
Canada has been tested at times throughout the week. Homan opened with a 7-6 win over Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg and needed an extra end for an 8-7 win over Italy’s Stefania Constantini a few days later.
A plucky Turkish side was also a handful, forcing Homan to make a pair of tricky soft-weight raises in the 10th end for a 9-5 win that was closer than the score might suggest.
The Wilkes-Miskew front end has been in top form and Fleury has consistently set up her skip. Homan has appeared cool and confident no matter the type of shot required.
“We’ve made the big shots when we’ve needed them,” Homan said. “I think it’s some of the best curling that we’ve ever had as a team and hopefully we can continue that.”
Homan will put her 27-game overall win streak on the line Friday night in a playoff tune-up against South Korea’s Eunji Gim.
Defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland beat Sweden 4-2 to secure the other direct semifinal berth as the second seed at 10-2. South Korea and Italy were tied in third place at 9-2 ahead of Sweden (7-5) and Denmark (6-6).
Winners of the qualification games Saturday will advance to the semifinals later in the day. Medal games are set for Sunday.
Canada hasn’t won gold at this competition since Jennifer Jones in 2018 at North Bay, Ont. Homan won gold in 2017 at Beijing in her third career world championship appearance.
Homan’s victory over Scotland improved her season record to 60-5.
“I thought they were playing really good at the Scotties but they’re even playing better here,” Bartlett said. “I think we’ve got three more good games in us.”