Wheelchair Curling Worlds: Day 5

© • KOSAD/Young Bok Kim

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Wheelchair Curling Worlds to Begin in Chuncheon

Korea, Russia, China and Slovakia are through to the playoff round of the 2012 World Wheelchair Curling Championships in Chuncheon, Korea.

In the final round-robin session on Thursday (23 February), Korea secured a high scoring 14-3 win over Slovakia to become the first team to reach the playoffs.

“It was a must-win game for us, so it’s a great pleasure to get the win,” said Korean skip Hak Sung Kim.

“I thought it would be a one-point game today. Slovakia planned for it to be a big game, but they missed many shots which let us win, I think.”

Korea will meet Russia in the first playoff game on Friday morning and the winner of that game will go straight to the final on Saturday to face the winner of China-Slovakia.

The Russians won their final round robin game against Italy 7-4. The Italians were leading 4-3 by the fourth end break, but a series of missed shots by skip Andrea Tabanelli let the Russians steal a win.

The Norwegians, meanwhile, needed a win against China on Thursday to avoid relegation to the next wheelchair curling championship qualification event, but China stole a crucial 3 points in the fifth end which set them on the way to a 6-3 win.

“We just played our normal game and took the chance to capitalize on our opponents’ mistakes,” Chinese skip Haitao Wang said.

“For the next games, we will start from zero and try to deliver every stone well.”

Slovakia’s up next for China after it beat USA in a tiebreaker following the round-robin stage.

The tiebreak game went down to the very last stone of an extra end. USA skip Patrick McDonald missed an attempted hit and roll and the Slovakians stole two points for a 7-5 win.

The Slovaks, who are playing their first ever World Wheelchair Curling Championship, have surpassed all their goals at this event.

“I can’t describe how I feel, I am so proud of my team,” said Slovakian coach Frantisek Pitonak. “We came here to show everyone what we can do, what we know about curling and how we can play. We hope that we’ve done that and we’re just so happy we have reached this stage of the competition.”

Standings after Round Robin & Tiebreaker

1. Korea 7-2

2. Russia 7-2

3. China 7-2

4. Slovakia 7-3

5. USA 6-4

6. Sweden 3-6

7. Canada 3-6

8. Scotland 3-6

9. Norway 2-7

10. Italy 1-8