Consistency is key.
Canada’s Kerri Einarson is finding that out once again coming away with a 2-2 record during the opening weekend of the world women’s curling championship in Prince George..
The host country dropped a stunning 11-3 decision to the high-powered Silvana Tirinzoni rink out of Switzerland (3-0).
“It’s not what we wanted to start off with. It is what it is and we have to be a lot sharper,” said Einarson.
Tirinzoni and her Zurich-based team came out of the gate like a two-time defending world champion putting a three-spot on the board with the hammer after the first end.
Einarson stormed right back in the second securing a double, trimming the deficit to one.
In the third, vice-skip Alina Paetz who throws the fourth stones for the Swiss, made a great shot to earn the team’s second triple to pull ahead 6-2.
“You never want to give up three’s to any team let alone a two-time world champion and Olympian – that is always tough. They had a really great first end and had us hooped and I had a double and it just fell through. I thought it would be close and it just ran,” added Einarson.
Both teams traded singles in the fourth and fifth ends, keeping the spread at four points.
The final blow came in the sixth as a missed double by Einarson resulted in a steal of four for Switzerland.
Einarson shot 80 percent against Switzerland while third Val Sweeting only clocked in at 68.
On the other hand, the Swiss was sharp right across the board as Tirinzoni, Paetz and second Esther Neuenschwander were all 92% or higher.
When asked what has been the key to success, Tirinzoni stated it all has to do with confidence.
“We are really happy to be here. It’s almost like we needed to come back out after the Olympics just to get the winning feeling again and we are really enjoying ourselves.”
“When you play with the self-confidence you are not afraid to take risks or have a lot of rocks in play. We had a busy first end in all three games actually so it’s working out and I hope we keep it going.”
Both decisive victories by the Canadian squad out of the Gimli Curling Club in Manitoba have been their afternoon games, only to fall apart in the evening draw (losses to Switzerland and Norway).
“I don’t think the struggles have to do with playing two games in a day we may need to work a little bit on things and figure out why we aren’t coming out as sharp in the later games. I don’t know what the answer is at this point,” said Shannon Birchard, Canada second.
“We hoped to have a 3-1 record to start but there is lots of event left, we learned that last year and we are in a better spot than last year so we can take that as a win.”
Canada has one game on Monday, a 2:00 afternoon start against Denmark (2-1), skipped by Madeline Dupont.
In other action from the Sunday night draw at CN Centre, Japan scored scored two in the 9th and then stole the winning point in the 10th to edge USA 7-6.
The Americans drop to 2-1 and skip Cory Christensen told MyPGNow.com it’s always tough to lose a game you were in total control of.
“It’s kind of a bummer. We had quite a few misses and weren’t quite getting rocks in good spots but in the 9th and 10th we let up a little bit.”
“Despite the last loss, we feel like we are playing very well and it’s great to be in an arena with fans in it. COVID has been hard the last two years so it’s good to be out here and representing USA is always a privilege.”
Japan moves into a first-place tie at 3-0 along with Switzerland and South Korea.
Elsewhere, Norway outlasted Germany 11-6.
The Germans drop to 0-3 and skip Daniela Jentsch said slow starts seem to be the Achilles heel.
“We are missing too many shots early in the end and then I am struggling to make the triples and doubles when I need to. We need to make more precision shots and I think we will be fine.”
The top six teams at the conclusion of the round-robin on Friday advance to Saturday’s playoffs followed by the medal games on Sunday.
Action on Monday morning begins with Draw 6 at 9:00.
Here are the matchups:
Italy vs Norway
Czech Republic vs Sweden
Japan will get a forfeit win over Scotland in the morning draw as the Scots have pulled out due to an outbreak of COVID-19 on the team.
A full breakdown of the standings can be found here
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