Olympic champions Sweden open title defense with victory
The initial ladies’ pass at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 featured eight of the ten teams that made their Ice Cube debut.
In this morning’s first match, the defending Olympic champions, Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg, met the reigning bronze medalists, Japanese Fujisawa Satsuki.
In the fifth end, Hasselborg showed confidence in her sweepers and pull weight when she made a perfect pull to the button against three counters for one point and to make the score 3-2 in Japan’s favor.
The roles were changed in the sixth end when Japanese Fujisawa faced a tricky draw against four.
The stone did not curl enough and resulted in a steal of three for the Swedes and they took a 5-3 lead.
In the seventh, after a perfect corner freeze by Hasselborg to limit all possibilities to more points for Japan, ship Fujisawa was forced to take a single on a hit-and-stay to make the score 5-4.
In the eighth end, Hasselborg played a short runback to score three points and go up, 8-4.
The Japanese had a chance to make four and equalize after a missed Swedish hit in the ninth end, but Fujisawa’s last hit hung next and they only made one to 8-5.
“I actually liked the way I threw it,” said Hasselborg. “We just took too much ice and that’s one of those things. It’s a first match in the championship and you have to learn the ice and find out.”
Overall, the Olympic champion was pleased with his opening performance, “I really enjoyed the ice, I think we missed a couple of shots but we learned from them and it’s much better to go out with a win and learn from a win than to learn “It was a big fight and a lot of patience.”
Denmark v China
The final score was 3-3 after five. After an empty sixth finish, the Danes took advantage of a missed selection attempt by China and had a draw on eight feet for three points to take a 6-3 advantage after seven finishes.
In the ninth end, Danish Madeleine Dupont was a bit heavy with her last draw and gave the hosts a steal of two to level the game at 6-6 on the way to the final end.
The Chinese continued to put pressure on Denmark, stone after stone in the tenth end. Dupont faced a mound of yellow stones and decided to play a draw to the button through a small harbor.
The match seemed to be over in China’s favor soon, but with an incredible stone handling by the Danes, it resulted in a perfectly played draw to the button to secure the victory points, 7-6.
“The last shot – I did not think it was there!” in Dupont. “You know I’m wrong sometimes, and it’s good to be wrong.”
“I think we are prepared in the best possible way and I think we showed it throughout the match.”
“The feeling is just phenomenal, you can not get a better start than this!”
ROC v. USA
The Americans came out strong against the ROC and led 6-1 after five finishes.
In the seventh end, the ROC had to decide whether to steal, or risk dropping more points.
They chose to draw around an American stone top twelve. ROC jumper Alina Kovaleva made the draw to the tee line perfect and forced US skipper Tabitha Peterson to play a short runback.
She completed it without fail and secured three points. ROC then shook hands, with the final score 9-3.
Great Britain v Switzerland
Great Britain and the reigning world champions Switzerland went all the way to an extra end. In a messy tenth finish, Switzerland’s fourth stone thrower Alina Paetz tried to squeeze an opponent’s stone from the button but it did not go far enough and resulted in a single point.
With the last stone’s advantage at the eleventh end, Britain’s Eve Muirhead did her best to keep the front open.
Despite this, she left herself with a draw to the full button on her last shot.
With a slight sweep of the British, Muirhead’s draw slipped too far, giving the Swiss a stolen point for a 6-5 victory.
Results for dampass 1: Great Britain 5-6 Switzerland; Denmark 7-6 China; Sweden 8-5 Japan; ROC 3-9 USA
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