Swiss, Koreans Into World Curling Final

The line-ups for the medal games at the 2022 World Women’s Curling Championship are set after a session of qualification games and two semifinals on Saturday in Prince George, B.C.

Switzerland continued their unbeaten run when they defeated Sweden 7-5 in the first semifinal, while Korea beat hosts Canada 9-6 in the other semi, and will face Switzerland in the gold medal final.

Canada will face Sweden for the bronze medals.

Switzerland and Korea had earned byes into the semifinals after finishing first and second in the round-robin rankings, while Canada and Sweden progressed from the Qualification Games earlier in the morning.

In those matches, third-place Canada defeated sixth-place Denmark 9-8, while fourth-place Sweden defeated fifth-place United States by an 8-6 scoreline.

Cory Christensen’s youthful USA foursome overcame a 2-0 deficit after four ends to lead the two-time Olympic medallist Swedes 6-4 playing the 10th end. Anna Hasselborg’s first throw of that end proved to be a killer blow, as her angle raise removed an American counter and Sweden lay three. Christensen’s last-ditch effort to reach the scoring area failed and Hasselborg didn’t need to throw her final stone.

Canada’s Kerri Einarson fell to Korea’s Eun-Jung Kim for the second time in two days. Similar to their round-robin victory, Kim stole both the 10th and 11th ends for the win over the home team.

Her squad also stole a single in the ninth to go up 7-6, after producing a deuce in the eighth.

The Canadians played an untidy 10th end and all that was left for Einarson was a long raise double on her own rock for two and the win, but she crashed on a front stone and their fate was sealed.

“I had a shot to win. It was extremely difficult,” said Einarson.

Canadian third Val Sweeting was crestfallen after the loss.

“It sucks to give away another game,” she said. “We fought really hard that game and gave ourselves a really good chance, and ultimately too many misses at the end of the game. Ultimately we just let it kind of slip away.”

In the other semi, Swiss fourth thrower Alina Paetz made stunning back-to-back runbacks in the eighth end to deflate the Swedes, who still had a draw for an extra-end in the 10th, but missed.

“(Paetz) made it twice in a row, perfectly,” said Tirinzoni. “You cannot make them any better.

“It’s like millimetres, really. In a game like this you have to fight for every rock so hard, and I’m so happy.”

The Swiss, who suffered crushing losses in the Olympic playoff round in Beijing—including the bronze medal game to Sweden—have won the previous two world championship titles.