Canada women into next year’s B-division
The round robin portion of the 2022 World Juniors in Jonkoping, Sweden is now complete.
In men’s play, Scotland earned first place honours with an 8-1 won/loss record, one game ahead of impressive Germany (7-2). Canada and Norway both finished 6-3 and grabbed the third and fourth-place playoff berths.
On semifinal Saturday, Scotland will battle Norway while Germany takes on Canada.
On the women’s side of the draw, Norway defeated United States 7-3 on Friday evening to claim first place. USA also finished with 7-2 record.
Japan finished third at 6-3 while Sweden snatched the fourth and final playoff spot at 5-4.
Canada men • Cheyenne Boone-WCFTwo other nations finished 5-4 but wound up in fifth and sixth place: Switzerland and Latvia, respectively.
The Latvians started the week like gangbusters but ended up losing four of their last five matches.
In the semifinals, Japan takes on USA while Norway will face Sweden.
Team USA’s women have been impressive, winning seven of their last eight games to rocket into the playoff picture.
“Our team has been together for three years, two national championships, and we’re all really just best friends,” said skip Delaney Strouse. “And so that really helps the communication, it’s so natural for us. That’s what works for us.”
The Strouse team had qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials back in December, and threw a scare into established adult teams in the process.
Sweden • Cheyenne Boone-WCFTeam that finish in the bottom of the standings see their WCF member nations relegated to next season’s World Junior-B Championships.
On the women’s side, Scotland and Canada finished 3-6 which drops those traditional powerhouses into the B-Division. Korea also joined them at 3-6, while Denmark also drops after a 1-8 week.
In men’s play, Italy (3-6) and surprising Sweden (1-8) also make the drop next season, along with New Zealand (0-9).
The Junior-B competition takes place before the World Juniors, and the top three finishing teams in both women’s and men’s play qualify for the World Juniors.
This season’s World Juniors were postponed from their original dates in March, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Junior-B event was scheduled for January in Lohja, Finland but a COVID-19 outbreak among four teams forced the event’s cancellation.
Selected matches can be viewed in full on The Curling Channel’s micro-transaction site, run by UK’s Recast, and “light” remote camera coverage of other sheets is also available.
Our recent column explained the “light” coverage option, and also linked to a prior explanation of World Curling Television’s Recast initiative.