Sweeping success for Canada
Homan remains undefeated with wins over Italy and Switzerland on March 19
SYDNEY, N.S. – Rachel Homan and Canada have breezed through the first three days of the 2024 World Women’s Curling Championship in Sydney.
The Canadians posted convincing wins over Denmark, United States and Norway and edged Sweden to begin the event on Saturday.
On Tuesday, the Homan rink faced its toughest opponents to date in the tournament with Italy and Switzerland.
Canada began the day with an 8-7 extra-end victory over Stefania Constantini and Italy at Centre 200 in Sydney in the morning.
The victory was the 21st consecutive for the Homan team and pushed the squad’s overall record to 54-5 on the season.
The Homan rink fell behind early with Italy counting two in the first end, but the team responded by scoring two in the second to tie the draw 2-2.
Canada took its first lead of the game in the fourth with one, but Italy answered in the fifth end with two to take a 4-3 lead.
Homan and the Canadians responded scoring two in the sixth and one in the seventh to make the score 6-4. Italy tied the draw with two in the eighth before Canada took a 7-6 lead in the ninth. The Constantini rink tied the draw again in the 10th to force an extra end.
In the 11th, Canada would collect one to keep its unbeaten streak alive.
Canada shot 86 per cent as a team to Italy’s 84 per cent.
The Canadians entered Tuesday evening’s game with Switzerland with a 5-0 record. Switzerland defeated Norway 6-3 in nine ends Tuesday afternoon and were 6-0 going into the game against Canada. However, Canada handed Switzerland its first loss with an 8-5 victory in eight ends.
In afternoon action, Japan defeated Estonia 10-4 in seven ends, Italy over New Zealand 11-3 in six ends and Denmark knocked off the United States 7-4 in nine ends.
Other action from Tuesday morning saw Sweden over Turkey 9-6 and South Korea over Scotland 9-3 in nine ends.
Team Canada was back in action March 20 at 9 a.m. against Japan (2-4). The team will wrap up the day at 7 p.m. against Turkey.
The top six teams qualify for the playoff round. The top
two teams receive a bye while the remaining four play in the qualification round to qualify for the semifinals.
The qualification games will be played on March 23 at 11 a.m. while the semifinal will be held later in the day at 5 p.m. The bronze medal and championship games are set for March 24 at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. respectively.