Denmark Claims Final Olympic Curling Berth

Mikkel Krause won a tale of two game halves as his Danish foursome upended Czech Republic’s Lukas Klima 8-5 in the final Olympic Qualifying Event match at Leeuwarden, Netherlands.

The end result sees Norway, Italy and Denmark claim the final three men’s berths, while Scotland/Great Britain, Japan and Korea take the last three women’s spots into the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

“It’s crazy,” said an relieved Krause. “We worked for this for four years, and we got the team together with this in mind. And to just make it there … it’s insane.”

A first-end runback double from Czech third Marek Cernovsky started things off with a bang, but Klima blew his first throw through the rings, eventually drawing for one. The game then settled as singles were exchanged in ends two and three.

Leading 2-1 in the fourth without last stone, Klima played a hit and roll on his first rock to lie three, one behind cover. Krause hit but didn’t roll in. Klima hit to lie three and Krause missed a double for a pair, surrendering one for a 3-1 Czech lead.

A sea of rocks appeared in the fifth end, and Klima missed his last throw in an attempt to lie two. Krause, after making a runback double on his first throw, missed the opportunity and wrecked on a guard, now trailing 4-1.

With the pressure building, Danish third Mads Noergaard drew around a corner guard against multiple Czech counters. Klima missed his draw, however, and Krause made a last-stone draw to narrow the gap to 4-3.

After being forced to one in the seventh end, disaster struck the Czechs in the eighth. Klima threw his last stone facing four mostly buried counters, removing two, and the Danes drew for three and their first lead of the match at 6-5.

The Czechs came further unglued in the ninth end, attempting a double and roll out for a blank. Klima’s bullet throw just kissed one of the stones, and both remained as counters. Denmark now lead by the eventual final score.

It was a crushing loss for the Czechs, who won the B Division at the European Championships and climbed into the Olympic Qualification Event after winning a spot at the Pre-Qualifier in Erzurum, Turkey.

Denmark has had a lengthy climb of their own. After the retirement of Rasmus Stjerne, the men’s team dropped all the way down to the European C Division. Krause and Noergaard won that competition and also won the B Division before running a 5-4 won/loss record at the 2019 Europeans, which qualified them for the playoffs (they lost the bronze medal match). The squad made their world championship debut in April in Calgary.

The World Curling Federation’s third OQE series earlier declared Australia and United States for the last two berths into the Beijing Olympic mixed doubles competition.