Japan too strong for St. John’s crew

With files from Curling Canada

Brad Gushue is out of gold medal position while Rachel Homan is into the semis at the Pan Continental Championships in Lacombe, Alta.

An 8-4 semifinal loss to Japanese veteran Shinya Abe wrecked the St. John’s foursome’s hunt for a third straight title at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex.

The two-time Pan Continental gold medallists have only lost three games at this event dating back to 2022, but Thursday’s loss was the most crucial.

“Absolutely, there’s disappointment,” said Gushue, who boasted an unblemished 7-0 won/loss record heading into the playoffs.

“Personally, I felt like I didn’t have a very good game. Disappointed that I let the guys down. Disappointed I let myself down.

“We’ll have to try and regroup and have a strong game tomorrow. It’s just disappointing that our worst game was in the semifinals.”

Gushue and third Mark Nichols, new second Brendan Bottcher, lead Geoff Walker and alternate Adam Casey will play John Shuster of the United States in the bronze-medal game on Friday at 2:00 p.m. Mountain time.

China’s Xiaoming Xu defeated Shuster’s USA by a 7-4 count to earn its ticket to the gold-medal game against Japan, slated for Saturday at 10:00 a.m.

Gushue had beaten Abe earlier in the week and also outlasted him in a fine match at Sault Ste. Marie, the team’s first event after dismissing E.J. Harnden and hiring Brendan Bottcher at second stone.

Meanwhile, Rachel Homan’s Canada entry is at 7-0 heading into this morning’s women’s semifinals.

Having qualified her country for the upcoming world championships in March 2025 and scoring a playoff berth in Lacombe, the pressure is off for the Homanators as they face China’s Rui Wang for a berth in the championship final.

The Ottaweans defeated Japan’s previously unbeaten Miyu Ueno 8-6 to finish their round-robin.

Japan will take on South Korea’s Eun-ji Gim, the defending champions, in the other semi.

The semifinal winners will play for gold Saturday at 3:00 p.m., with the losers going into the bronze-medal game Friday at 7:00 p.m.

“It’s nice to have some momentum heading into the playoffs,” said Canada third Tracy Fleury.

“We always like starting the game with hammer, so that’s good, and we feel like we have a good handle on the rocks, so we’re going to pick a good set and we’re going to come out strong (Friday).”

“I thought we were just a bit off on our feel game tonight,” said Canada men’s third Mark Nichols. “We sat a little bit heavy on a number of shots and that definitely was the difference.

“We’ll get some rest, come out and practice (Friday) and try to dial in that draw weight as quick as we can because that was probably our worst game of the week when it came to draw weight.”