The world revenge gives Sweden a profit
Sweden showed its strength against the defending Paralympic champions and world champions China in a wheelchair curling-round-robin in Beijing 2022 on Sunday (March 6), in a replay of the gold medal game from the 2021 World Championships.
In their morning game, the Swedes missed the first end and were forced to a single in the second.
They took a commanding 4-0 lead after China’s jumper Wang Haitao was heavy on his last draw and slipped past two Swedish stones to steal two points.
With another well-played end to Sweden in the sixth, China faced a challenging raise where they just missed and gave up another steal for a 5-0 point.
The Chinese collected their stones in the four-legged ring throughout the seventh end, hoping for a Swedish miss to enable a big point, but with a perfect freeze by third Ronny Persson, this would be a challenge. China made a freeze on the right back, but this meant they could only score one point to make it 5-1.
In the eighth end, Sweden ran the stones on China to win, 5-1.
“It feels very good today!” said Sweden’s management, Kristina Ulander. “We did a great job and stayed focused on all the rocks.”
At the seventh end, she shared: “We felt very safe. We think they could only take one of two, so we felt very safe.”
However, China came off the mark in their second match of the day against Estonia and won 9-3.
Canada continues the winning streak
Canada, who collected two wins on the opening day, faced a unique situation against Latvia in the first end of their afternoon match.
Once all the stones had been thrown, the Canadians demanded an action to see if they would get one or two points. The stone that had to be measured was removed by mistake by a volunteer, which left the Canadians with a choice. They had the opportunity to take a point or replay the entire first end. They chose to play at the end and they got four points.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before, so it was new to me and having the choice to play the end again or take it, it was a difficult decision, but I think we made the right decision,” said Canada’s skipper Mark Ideson. .
“We were patient and just regrouped, wiped clean and started again,” he added.
After this, Canada secured two in the fourth end with a draw to the four feet by fourth player Jon Thurston to take a 6-2 advantage.
In the fifth, the Canadians got a steal of four when Latvia was light on its draw, heading for its 10-3 win.
Canada is ideally located at the end of day two. Ⓒ Getty Images
Estonia makes its debut
In Estonia’s first ever show at the Paralympic wheelchair competition, they opened with a single point against the United States.
The Americans responded with a score of three in the second end and then made four in the fifth end to go up 7-3.
The United States faced a draw to the button for one in the seventh end, but came up bright and gave Estonia a big steal of two, 7-6.
The Americans held on to the last, without having to throw their last stone, to win their first match so far, 9-6.
“I think we’ve just been concentrating more on execution,” said Stephen Emt of the United States.
“Everything that happens at the Paralympic Games, the first day is over, and now it’s just a matter of hitting the broom, hitting the weights and driving. Yesterday we missed a couple of shots that we should not have. So just execution today and it worked out. for us. “
“We always have fun, no matter what happens. It is important. We think having fun will win matches, not the other way around. We stay together and we are a family “, he added.
Swiss just outside South Korea
In a match where both teams were looking for their first win, South Korea got off to a strong start with four goals in the second end and went up 4-1.
Switzerland fought back in the fifth end with three points to level at 5-5. In the sixth, the Swiss were out to steal when South Korea made a perfect double take with their last stone to secure a 6-5 lead.
The Swiss secured two points to equalize the match in the eighth, despite having a draw to win, which forced an extra finish.
After a draw against the diocese, behind a wall of guards, Switzerland stole one to win, 8-7.
Slovakia will host Norway
The Norwegians started the match with a single point, followed by a steal of two in the third and a steal of one in the fourth for a 4-0 lead.
In the fifth end, Slovakia’s fourth pitcher, Peter Zatko, made a perfect runback for three points to correct the gap, 4-3.
But in the sixth end, after Zatko went through the house on his last draw, Norway had a chance of three points to take a big 7-3 jump in the match.
With two more thefts in the seventh, Slovakia shook hands, 9-3, which gave Norway its second victory in the competition.
Ole Fredrik Syversen, Norway’s third, said, “We had a good start, we felt the ice better than yesterday, we have better feelings and we believe in ourselves and we did what we wanted to do.”
Norway has two wins and one loss on its way into today three of round-robin games. Ⓒ Getty Images
Commenting on Slovakia’s fullback, he said: “At the fifth end they got three, and we tried to make a shot so they could not make the hill, but he had the hill and he managed it.”
“We took a very strong finish back in the seventh end with three, and I think it was the match, so we are very happy. We have a good strong team and good motivation in the team.”
Slovakia and Norway both continued to lose their matches against Latvia and South Korea respectively on Sunday. The Koreans won 9-4 while Slovakia lost to the Latvians 8-4.