World Junior Curling in Sweden
Latvia’s women’s team turns upside down after defeating Canada in World Juniors in Jönköping.
It was a wild one, as Latvia took four points in the fourth end and stole three in the fifth to lead 7-0. Two finishes later it was 7-5, but Latvia took another three in the sixth end to lead 10-5.
Canada, who were skipped by Isabelle Ladouceur, took a single at the seventh end and stole a pair in the eighth to stay behind 10-8, but lost a second in the ninth. The slug party ended 12-8.
The Latvians are now 3-0 after previous wins over Japan (10-3) and the USA (10-6).
Evelina Barone is the Latvian jumper. She was very busy earlier this season and threw the fourth stone for the Latvian adult women’s team at both the Olympic and world qualifying events. In both cases, Barone helped his team qualify for the playoffs and in both cases, Latvia lost the second qualifying match.
One could assume that the experience of the Olympic and World Championship qualifiers has given Barone’s juniors a leg up in the competition early this week.
Norway defeated Korea 9-7 to share first place in the women’s division. Sweden is 2-1 while Japan and the USA are 1-1. A number of teams, including Canada, have 1-2.
On the men’s side, Germany, Norway and Scotland are all 3-0, while Korea is 2-1.
Canada and the USA have 1-2, also a draw with Italy and Switzerland.
The German men are skipped by Benjamin Kapp, son of the German men’s legend Andy Kapp.
Selected matches can be viewed in full on The Curling Channel’s microtransaction site, powered by the UK’s Recast, and “light” remote camera coverage of other sheets is also available.
Our latest column explained the “light” coverage option, and also linked to an earlier explanation of the World Curling Television Recast initiative.