Canada and Norway Unbeatable at World Wheelchair Curling Championship

Norway and Canada stretched their lead to five wins and no losses on Thursday at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2011 in Prague, Czech Republic.

In the morning, Norway beat China 6:3 and then went on to beat Korea 8:7. The Norwegians are pleased with their performance so far at this event and on their calculations believe with five wins they have now secured a place for Norway at next year’s World Championship in Chuncheon City in South Korea.

Canada’s two wins of the day were against Russia (7:3) and Sweden (7:3).

“The Swedes had a tough first game today and sometimes it’s a little tough to re-gear and re-focus,” said Canadian Skip Jim Armstrong at the end of the day. Sweden lost 6:10 in the morning to Korea. “I think we maybe just caught Glenn [Ikonen, Swedish Skip] on a bad day, on a rebound,” added Armstrong.

Scotland has now won three games and lost one. Their only game of the day was against the USA, which they won 6:5. Scot Aileen Neilson is the only female skip at the World Championships. She said afterwards that she felt there was no difference about being the only woman calling the shots out on the ice. “I don’t think as a woman I have any different tactics out there. It’s very much a team game and a team effort.”

After the tight game against Scotland, the Americans went on to meet China in the afternoon session and were hit hard with the Chinese winning by 11:4.

In the remaining game of the afternoon session, Germany picked up their first win of the Championship scoring 6:4 against the Czech Republic.

“We are happy to have our first victory” said Skip Marcus Sieger afterwards, “it’s my first world championship as skip so it’s a new experience for me. I think I have still got a lot to learn – I need to improve on strategy!”

Standings after Day 3

Canada 5-0

Norway 5-0

Scotland 3-1

Russia 2-2

China 2-3

Korea 2-3

Germany 1-3

Czech Republic 1-3

Sweden 1-4

USA 1-4