American curling fans can breathe a sigh of relief – at least one of their fours teams have qualified for the Olympic Winter Games
Danny Casper’s young American curlers are off to Italy.
Casper and Co. thumped China’s Xiaoming Xu by a 9-4 scoreline to win the first playoff at the Olympic Qualifying Event (OQE) at Kelowna, B.C.
China started fast with a deuce and kept the advantage after USA scored only one in the second end. But from then on it was all America, as Casper’s Chaska, MN crew stole three consecutive points to lead 4-2 at the break.
After swapping singles for three ends to start the second half, the Americans dropped a huge four-ender on China and that was it – and handshakes.
World Curling graphicTeam Casper rocked the curling world a month ago by becoming the first men’s team to ever defeat John Shuster at a U.S. Olympic Trials competition.
Casper lost their second game of the OQE round robin 9-8 to China, but then rattled off five straight victories to qualify for the first playoff against Xu. Both teams came into the playoffs with identical 6-1 won/loss records.
China now faces Japan for the final men’s fours berth in Cortina, with the game starting at 3:00 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday.
The United States women’s team, skipped by Tabitha Peterson, will also attempt to qualify for Cortina in a sudden-death women’s second playoff final against Norway, now underway in Kelowna.