Hasselborg, Sweden take advantage of Norway’s mishaps
No hammer, no problem.
Anna Hasselborg and Sweden handled the business on the last day of round-robin action at the world championship in curling for women with a 6-3 victory over Norway at PG’s CN center.
The Swedes (9-3) did not have the last stone for seven of the nine finishes.
Norwegian four Kristen Skaslien missed her last stones at both ends three and four to give Sweden a 3-0 lead.
Norway finally took singles in a row in the fifth and sixth end and made it 3-2.
The turning point, however, was a Hasselborg withdrawal for two in the seventh – which made it a three-point spread again.
Hasselborg backed with 88% better than Skaslien which was only 63%.
After playing six matches in the three days before this match, the 32-year-old Olympic champion told Vista Radio that it was nice to take a more relaxed approach this time.
“We knew it was one of those games where we wanted to put together some puzzle pieces and make all our shots. Now we’re ready for tomorrow’s big matches so it was nice to have a low key match and not waste too much energy.”
“Yesterday (Thursday) was a pretty tough day. We had a lot of back-to-back games like marathon curling like everyone does here but it was so nice to have time off in the morning and get some sleep. We’ll eat a lot and then sleep a lot and get us ready for tomorrow, “said Hasselborg.
Swedish runner-up Agnes Knochenhauer returned to the team line-up after resting in tonight’s 5-4 loss to the USA.
Norway ends its round robin with a record of 5-7.
Elsewhere, South Korea won a forfeited win against Japan (6-6) who opted out of their final due to a number of positive covid-19 infections in the team.
Finally, Italy improved to (4-8) after a 7-3 win against the Czech Republic (2-9).
Skip Stefania Constantini made a withdrawal for five in the eighth end to put the Italians clearly ahead.
Sweden, Canada (8-3) and Korea (8-3) are fighting for second place and a bye to the semis.
Tonight at 7:00 Canada plays against (2-9) the Czech Republic and Korea takes on (2-9) Turkey.
The Canadian team comes after an 8-5 victory over Germany this morning.
Two other matches have (7-4) USA and Denmark (7-4) clashes to decide the playoff seeding together with Switzerland (11-0) who host Germany (5-7).
Switzerland with its first place in the round robin has taken its ticket to the semifinals on Saturday night.
Qualifying games (3 against 6 and 4 against 5) take place tomorrow at 13.00 and the semifinals at 19.00.
Medal games hit the ice on Sunday at 11.00 (for bronze) and 16.00 (for gold).
The whole position can be found here.
The complete schedule and results are correct here.
– with files from Hartley Miller