Korea’s Olympic Berth Completes The Circle

Korea’s Kim Eun-Jung defeated Latvia’s Santa Blumberga-Berzina 8-5 to claim the final women’s team berth at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Korea’s Olympic qualification does more than return the defending silver medalists to Beijing. It also completes the circle following the team’s exposure of years of coaching abuse—which resulted in criminal convictions—and an eventually joyful reunion with Canadian coach Peter Gallant at the 2021 world championship.

The first end was blanked. In the second end, Korea lay three before Latvian fourth Evelina Barone made a hit and roll to nestle against a Korean stone. Kim was up to the task, and threw a delicate hit and roll to score three.

In the third end Latvia took one; in the fourth Korea scored a single while facing two. In the fifth end, Barone hit against three to trail 4-2.

The sixth saw Latvian pressure, as Barone made a fine cross-house double to lie four. Kim coolly made a down-weight hit for the single and a 5-2 lead.

In the seventh end Barone continued her solid shooting with a hit and roll to count Latvia’s first deuce of the afternoon, narrowing the gap to 5-4.

The eighth end was critical. The Latvians made a lovely freeze around a centre guard on third stones, however a misplaced guard allowed Korea to muscle it out of the house, although the shooter rolled too far. By this point, Barone had overtaken Kim in shooting percentage, 84% to 80%.

The Korean skip half-buried, but Barone wrecked on her pick attempt and Kim drew for a pair, and now lead the contest 7-4.

The wind was clearly out of Latvia’s sails in the ninth end, with Barone facing four Korean stones on her first throw. She eventually hit for a single to trail 7-5 with one end to play.

It was an impressive fourth-place finish for the Latvians, who made it to Leeuwarden from the Pre-Olympic qualifier in Erzurum, Turkey. They go home with the knowledge they finished higher than Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Germany’s Daniela Jentsch, the recent European bronze medalist.

The final men’s qualifier features another team that won its berth via Erzurum. Lukas Klima’s Czech Republic foursome, which is coached by Canada’s Craig Savill, lost Friday’s Olympic qualifier to Italy and now faces Denmark’s Mikkel Krause.