China Roars Back at Pan Continental Curling

One year ago, China prevented their curling teams from competing at the inaugural Pan Continental Curling Championships, due to COVID travel restrictions.

That saw a gaggle of other Pacific-Asia region minnows—such as Australia, New Zealand, Chinese Taipei and others—push hard to grab the assumed “free” berth in the 2023 world championships the Chinese had vacated.

“I’ll be candid here, whenever you lose an Asian team at one of these tournaments, that’s a spot (at world championships) that becomes available,” Australia skip Jay Merchant told The Curling News last season.

“China, Japan and Korea have always been a thorn in our side so whenever there is the opportunity that one of them is not gonna be there, we have to seize on that and take the opportunity.”

The absence also meant China, should they return this fall, would compete in the B Division and would have to win their way back into next season’s 2024 A Division.

To the surprise of few observers, it all came together for China in Kelowna. 

As the A Division squads battled for world berths and the event podium, China’s women’s and men’s team ran roughshod over the rest of the B Division and clinched their spots in next year’s A groups.

China’s Han Yu outscored her opposition 78-9 in her six games played, including an 18-1 demolition of the Philippines, who were making their international curling debut.

Meanwhile, China men’s skip Ma Xiuyue scored 148 points in his team’s nine matches against his opposition’s 25. Ma’s biggest scoreline was a 14-1 thrashing of Kenya.

B Division silver went to Jamaica on the women’s side (also making their international debut) and the men’s Philippines entry, which counted two former Swiss world competitors in Marc and Enrico Pfister, plus a two-time Swiss world junior medallist in Christian Haller.

Bronze medals went to Brazil’s Marcio Rodrigues (acclaimed) and Hong Kong’s Jason Chang, a 10-7 winner over Mexico’s Diego Tompkins.