Norway’s curling women in WC qualification – Norwegian Curling Association
January 17, 2022
The Olympics slipped, but now the Norwegian curling women can have a World Cup at the end of the season as a band-aid.
Norway is one of seven women’s teams in Finland – more specifically in Lohja – where they will play six preliminary matches this week and hopefully go to a final game that ends with World Cup participation in Canada at the end of March.
The qualification in Finland is the reward for Norway winning the B-group in the European Championships in Lillehammer in November.
Then Norway beat Latvia in the final and moved up to the A-group. Norway and Latvia will also have the opportunity for a World Cup qualifier against the host nation Finland, the A nations Denmark and the Czech Republic, as well as Brazil and Hong Kong.
The tournament plays as a round robin. That is, all the layers meet each other once. The top three teams after the leading matches go to a playoff.
Numbers 1 and 2 meet in the first match. The winner is ready for the World Cup. The loser meets number three in the final playoff match. The winner of this match gets the last World Cup place.
Denmark and the Czech Republic are favorites here, but Norway and Latvia are good outsiders. We have a fair chance to manage this if we have a good week. It will be exciting, but of course there is a lot that needs to be done. I would think Denmark is in good shape since they have prepared well for the Olympics, but we have played evenly against them earlier in the season. Everything is possible and we also have a good team, says Norway’s coach Rune Steen Hansen.
During the European Championships at home in Lillehammer, Kristin Skaslien played fours on the Norwegian team. She is not going to Finland since she prioritized eating the form for the Olympics and mixed doubles there with Magnus Nedregotten.
Eirin Mesloe has joined the Norwegian team. She is usually a ship on the beloved Oppdal / Trondheim-based junior team there.
The Norwegian team in Finland consists of one Martine Rønning (song ship), two Eirin Mesloe, three Mille Haslev Nordbye and four Marianne Rørvik (ship)
Norway will play its first match in the tournament on Tuesday morning at 08.00 against the host nation Finland.
The playoffs are played on Saturday.
The World Cup will be held in Canada in the province of British Columbia from March 18 to 17.
To follow the layer and see results: https://worldcurling.org/events/wqe2022