Olympic Curling-Swedes Canadians in battle with heavyweights
By Hritika Sharma
BEIJING (Reuters) -Sweden’s Niklas Edin and Anna Hasselborg led their pages over Canadians with Brad Gushue and Jennifer Jones in hand when curling royalties were at the center during the men’s and women’s competitions at the National Aquatics Center on Saturday.
Edin, the three-time reigning world champion, lacks an Olympic crown from his glittering collection of medals but is in the best position to change that in Beijing with Sweden storming to a perfect start after four matches.
The Canadian men just fell short in their defeat with 7-4 after Gushue, gold medalist in Turin in 2006, could not pick a Swedish stone out of the button at the end.
“We felt when we went into that match that it was the first real test to go all the way in this event,” said Edin, who has a silver and bronze medal from the 2018 and 2014 games after finishing fourth. location in Vancouver 2010.
“They are of few teams in the world that have already won the Olympics and come back so it was a very tough match on paper and out there, but it felt like we had the upper hand all the way.
“I do not think we will be too confident. We have had three attempts and done really well, but we still have to go all the way.”
In an exciting round-robin session where each match went to the last stone, Norway beat the reigning Olympic champions USA 7-6 while Denmark and Italy remained undefeated after losing 8-6 and 12-9 against Switzerland and China respectively.
Hasselborg’s Swedish side, who won gold four years ago in Pyeonchang, also joined in to edge Jones’ rink 7-6 on a measurement at the end and gave the Sochi 2014 winners their second straight group game loss.
“I think of Jennifer as one of the greatest of all time,” Hasselborg said after facing Jones on the Olympic stage for the first time.
“I would not say it’s a rivalry, I have so much respect for Jennifer. I love playing against her. It’s always a great fight. We knew it would come down to the last stone, and it did.”
Sweden later suffered a shock 9-6 defeat against hosts China, who took their first win, while Great Britain ended the undefeated run of the United States after sweeping them to the side with 10-5 with a finish left.
Japan followed up an 8-7 comeback victory over Denmark with a 10-5 victory over the Russian Olympic Committee – which had previously lost 9-5 against South Korea – while the reigning world champions Switzerland beat Denmark 8-5.
Teams play nine games in the round-robin stage, which continues on Sunday, with the top four advancing to the semifinals next week.
(Reporting by Hritika Sharma; Editing by Ken Ferris and Christian Schmollinger)