(South Korean sweepers put the rocks in play at the Women’s Curling World Championships in PG. Photo provided by Brendan Pawliw, MyPGNow.com) Staff)
We are not even through the round of the Curling World Championships for women and history is already made.
For the first time since joining the World Curling Federation since 1994, South Korea is on a 6-0 start after a 7-4 victory over Italy on Tuesday night at the CN Center.
The key shot of the game came in the eighth, when the jumper Eun-Jung Kim completed a hit for three, making the game unattainable.
All five Korean curlers who came into the game crawled 82% or higher. Vice-skipper Kyoeng-Ae Kim was almost flawless with a 99% efficiency rating badly overtaking Italian third Marta Lo Deserto who rolled to just 72%.
Korea curls up from a large curling center in the coastal city of Gangneung – the site of the 2009 Women’s Championships and the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Despite the warm start, Kim does not look past opponents on the playing field.
“For now, we’re concentrating on just one game at a time and adapting to the ice.”
“There are two main reasons for our success. One is that we have been a team for a very long time and our other experiences at this championship and the Olympics have really helped us to perform at this championship.
Kim Rink has a proven track record in big moments. At the Winter Games in Pyeongchang they collected a silver medal and lost against the Swede Anna Hasselborg.
At last month’s Olympics in Beijing, they were just shy of ranking the podium in fourth place.
Similar to China and Japan, the sport has seen rapid growth in Korea since the mid-90s.
“I started curling after an arena was built along the country where I live. As for curling in Korea in general, literally, no one knew what the sport was, but these days many people have a better understanding of the game and now understand the strategy. That has definitely changed over the years, “Kim added.
Out of every third in the tournament, Kim ranks second (88.0) behind only Sara McManus of Sweden, who is at 91%.
In addition, Seon Yeong Kim is at the top of all the leads in the women’s worlds, curling at 91% – two points ahead of Swedish star Sofia Mabergs.
Team Sweden led by Skip Anna Hasselborg at the World Championships for Women Curling at the CN Center. (Photo provided by Brendan Pawliw, MyPGNow.com staff)
Speaking of Sweden, they improved to 6-1 after an 8-4 victory against Japan. Hasselborg looked at 95% outplaying fellow skipper Ikue Kitzawa who was 72%.
After the Japanese started 4-0, the Japanese lost 3 straight – in the afternoon they fell 10-4 against Canada’s Kerri Einarson (4-2).
Canada’s only match today (Wednesday) is at 9am against Sweden.
Canada is in a three-way tie for fourth with the USA and Denmark also at 4-2.
(The Canadian team gets a victory tonight against Scotland, who came home, due to COVID-19)
At the end of the day, Norway (3-4) came back to victory after a 10-5 victory against Turkey without a win (0-6).
Norwegian second Millie Haslev Nordbye was the top player curling at 89%.
This morning’s draw consists of three other games including:
- Switzerland vs Czech Republic
- USA vs Turkey
- Korea vs Denmark
The top six teams make the playoffs.
The qualifiers will take place on Saturday at 13:00 and the semi-finals on Saturday evening at 19:00.
Medal players hit the ice on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (for bronze) and 4:00 p.m. (for gold).
The complete ranking can be found here.
The full schedule and results are here.
– with files by Darin Bain
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