Canada’s Einarson loses the world curling semi-final, will play against Sweden for a bronze medal
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Canada’s wait for a gold medal at the World Curling Championships for women will be extended for at least another year after Kerri Einarson’s team lost to South Korea in the semifinals on Saturday night.
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South Korea’s EunJung Kim, the 2018 Olympic silver medalist, beat Canada’s Einarson 9-6 at the CN Center in Prince George, BC, to book a spot in Sunday night’s gold medal match.
While South Korea faces undefeated Switzerland for gold, Canada will face Swedish Anna Hasselborg, who is looking to at least take a bronze medal from her second trip to the world championships for women. The bronze game is played at 14, ET on Sunday.
Canada has not won a gold medal – or a medal of any kind – since Jennifer Jones from Winnipeg won the 2018 Women’s World Cup.
The Einarson team, which has won three straight Canadian women’s championships, has still not really made its mark on the world stage. The team, which includes third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and leading Briane Meilleur, finished sixth in the 2021 World Cup and will place third or fourth this year.
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Swiss Silvana Tironzoni has a record with 13-0 so far, including a semifinal victory with 7-5 over Sweden on Saturday.
South Korea had the hammer to start the game because it technically ended before Canada in the round robin.
South Korea, Canada and Sweden all finished with a 9-3 record – behind 12-0 Switzerland – but since all three teams went 1-1 head-to-head, the second place was decided by cumulative results of the latest stone-throwing, which is a throw. before each match.
South Korea beat Canada by 0.27 centimeters in the middle distance.
Kim and her teammates – all also named Kim but not related – broke the first end but used the hammer well in the second. Einarson tried a double with his last stone at the second end, but a jam left EunJung Kim with his own double to potentially make three.
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But her shot was also correct, which meant that it was only a 2-0 lead instead of 3-0 for South Korea.
South Korea put lots of stones in the house in the third and Canada could only make one, which gave Kim the hammer back, with the lead.
In the fourth, South Korea had a chance to potentially score four goals by doubling through the port, but chose not to try the shot, instead pulling for one and taking a 3-1 lead.
Then a couple of half shots from the skipper in the fifth led to Einarson having an equalizer to the four-footer for a second to equalize the match to 3-3 on the way to the break.
In the sixth, Korea once again had a shot for a great finish, but chose not to try it. Instead, Kim tried to draw to get a piece of the quadruped, but was heavy and it resulted in only a single point and a 4-3 lead.
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Canada took full advantage of that in the seventh, put a lot of stones in the house and eventually made three when Einarson threw a precision move to the button that was skillfully swept by Birchard and Meilleur.
It gave Canada a 6-4 lead on the way into the quarterfinals but the Koreans played a strong finish and finished with a second. It could have been three again, but Kim just missed a double with his last stone.
Still, it was 6-6 and Canada had the last stone in the ninth, usually a great position to be in. But Canada did not have a brilliant finish and ended up giving up a steal, the result of Einarson missing a double attempt with her last stone.
The silver lining was that Canada had the last stone for the 10th end, but the South Koreans filled the quadruped with stones and Einarson could never remove them all, resulting in a steal of two and a 9-6 final.
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Einarson went on to the semifinals with a strong performance on Saturday afternoon in a playoff match against Danish Madeleine Dupont.
Einarson and her teammates made a 9-8 win over Denmark, which ensured that Canada would play for a medal on Sunday.
It was a match back and forth, where both teams threw blows.
Canada made a second with the hammer in the first end, Denmark made three in the second and Canada got a second in the third to take a 4-3 lead.
It started to turn in Canada’s favor when Einarsson’s team forced Denmark to take one in the fourth and then shorted the five.
Canada made a second in the sixth, gave up two in the seventh and then finally used their hammer advantage to make a little three in the eighth.
Leading by 9-6, without a hammer, in the ninth, Canada put on all kinds of pressure, and in the end, Dupont had nothing but a heavy pull and pull weight to get a piece of the quadruped. She made the shot and Denmark made a single to stay alive.
Canada, however, had a lead of 9-7 and the hammer came home in 10th and everything Einarson needed to do to seal the win was met on one of two Danish counters. She did just that, and even though her shooter rolled out and left Denmark with a steal of one, Canada still won 9-8.
Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman