Following their two wins on Wednesday, beating China by 8-3, and then the Czech Republic by 6-4, table-topping Sweden, skipped by Oskar Eriksson, are assured of a place in the Page 1 v 2 play-off game at the World Junior Curling Championships in Perth, Scotland, no matter what happens in their last game against Scotland on Thursday.

Behind Sweden in the rankings, reigning world champions from Switzerland led by Peter de Cruz also had two wins on Wednesday, by 8-3 over Norway and then by 5-2 over Denmark, to sit in clear second place, on six wins.

Tied in third place, with five wins are; Norway – who went on to beat Scotland’s John Penny by 8-6 after their morning loss to Switzerland; Scotland - who, in turn, had earlier beaten the Czechs by 9-7; and Canada. The Canadians are now on a five game winning roll, including by 11-7 over Finland’s Iiro Sipola and by 7-2 against China’s Jihui Huang on Wednesday. China are still in contention behind them on four wins.

On Wednesday evening, an elated Canadian skip Braeden Moskowy said, “we’re getting close now, one more and then we’re in the dance”.

Meanwhile, Scottish skip Penny, whose team have been battling illness this week looked forward as faced a do-or-die game against table-topping Sweden, saying, “we’re just going to go back now, have a good rest and a good sleep and get into the zone tomorrow. I’m feeling a lot better and whatever happens tomorrow happens, but we’ll give it our best shot”.

Following the 8-6 win over Scotland that caused the three-way tie in third place, Norwegian skip Steffen Mellemsetter said, “it was a really tough game. Tomorrow we have to beat Denmark and we have to step up our game a bit if we are going to get to the gold medal game. If we end up playing Canada in the 3v4 game we’ll have to play as well as we did in the first match of the round robin against them”.

The USA picked up second win in the evening beating Finland 5-1. “We went out and had fun,” said USA Skip Aaron Wald after the game. He also explained “that was our last junior game together as a team. It felt good to actually go out and play well for once this week. We’re bringing in our fifth for tomorrow.”

With next year’s Junior Championships scheduled to take place in Europe, either the Czech Republic or Denmark, who now share bottom place in the rankings with just one win each, will have to face qualification next year. Denmark play Norway on Thursday, while the Czechs are up against Canada. 

Canada’s Trish Paulsen, fighting for survival, beat Russia’s Anna Sidorova, already assured of a Page Play-off place, by 6-3 in one of the major encounters of the seventh session of round-robin play at the World Junior Curling Championships in Perth, Scotland on Wednesday afternoon.

The game was close all the way until Paulsen scored two in the eighth end and stole two in the ninth for a 6-2 lead. Russia scored one in the tenth, but it was not enough.

Afterwards, Paulsen, who has to beat USA and then Scotland in her last two round-robin games on Thursday to keep her campaign alive, said, “we were fighting for our lives out there...it was that kind of game. When we have a goal in mind and when we have to win, we play great. We showed that we’re able to play here, so if we keep playing like that we’ve still got a chance for the play-offs”.

Scotland’s Eve Muirhead cruised to a 10-2 win over Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura to not only re-join Russia at the top of the rankings, but also to ensure her Page Play-off place. Afterwards, Muirhead said, “that was a really solid game by all of us. I don’t think it was a case of them missing a lot of shots, it was more us putting so much pressure on them and leaving them difficult shots”.

The organisers have sold out all tickets for Sunday’s women’s final, with a huge local expectation that Muirhead – going for a record fourth junior world title – will be involved. About that, she said, “we’re hoping that we make it to please everyone, but I think I’ve just got to forget about that. We shouldn’t take any pressure from that at all”. 

Sweden’s Jonna McManus beat France’s Anna Li by 11-2 to establish a clear third place on the rankings. This was yet another heavy defeat for winless France, who will now face a challenge for their place in next year’s line-up, but, remarkably, Li and her team were still able to take the positives out of their experience. 

Li said, “It’s been a difficult week, but my team only started curling in September. At the moment I am on a year studying at university in Southern Spain and there’s not any ice to practise there! I’ve tried to come back to France to train as much as possible. But we’ve all had a taste of a world championship and we are not giving up. Our plan is to move on to play the European Championships C group competition in September”.

Meanwhile, USA’s Rebecca Hamilton beat Norway’s Kristine Davanger by 7-1 to move into a clear fourth, leaving Norway in a tie with Japan, Canada and Switzerland’s Manuela Siegrist on three wins each and fifth place.

In her seventh session game Siegrist beat the Czech Republic’s Anna Kubeskova, who now cannot qualify for the medal section, by 6-3. After this game, Siegrist said, “it was a very tight game, both teams made a lot of good shots. We played a lot of take-outs so the game was tight but I think we never gave up”.

“Our games against Sweden and Japan tomorrow are very important. The standard of competition is higher than in Flims last year”.

Russia’s Anna Sidorova tops the rankings, undefeated, in the women’s competition after six sessions of play at the World Junior Curling Championships 2011 in Perth, Scotland.

Sidorova and Scotland’s Eve Muirhead are scheduled to meet each other on Thursday, the final day of round-robin play and this game could be the decider as to which of them eventually tops the rankings. 

On Tuesday morning, Russia cruised to a 10-1 win over Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura and followed that up with a 9-3 win over Norway’s Kristine Davanger. Afterwards, Sidorova said, “when we came into the competition we thought we could make the top four and we should be there. But we still have to play three games.”

In the same sessions, Scotland’s Eve Muirhead beat the Czech Republic’s Anna Kubeskova by 6-4 but then went down by 6-7 to Sweden’s Jonna McManus in a game that went down to a last stone measure before the Swedes got confirmation of their single steal for victory.

After their engrossing game, McManus said, “that was a very important win for us on the rankings.  We played so badly in the last game and the game before, so we really needed to pick it up” while Muirhead commented, “it was one of those games.  We played it the way we wanted to and had hammer coming down the last.  We’d be happy to take them any other day.  We’re sitting second now – it’s only one loss and no-one likes a run that goes unbeaten during the Championships”.

Behind Russia and Scotland, Sweden sits in third place on four wins and two losses. Norway, Japan and USA share the crucial fourth spot.

On the day that their Association announced the appointment of their first-ever High Performance Director – Scotland’s Derek Brown – USA had a mixed day.  Skip Rebecca Hamilton led her team to an 8-2 win over Sweden but then went down to an extra end 6-7 loss to Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura.

After that game Yoshimura said, “when we went into the extra end I knew I was going to win it.  We have been struggling so far and it’s a tough event and we still have some tough games to play”.

 

After losing by 4-10 to Norway in the morning, Switzerland’s Manuela Siegrist beat Canada’s Trish Paulsen by 10-3. This Canadian defeat followed their easy 15-4 win over France. The Czech Republic’s Anna Kubeskova also beat France by 11-3. The Swiss, Canada and the Czechs share the same won two, lost four record, while, despite their best efforts, France have yet to win a game.

Photo: Manuela Siegrist. Photo courtesy of Tom Brydone.

Women’s Standings after Round 6:

Russia 6-0

Scotland 5-1

Sweden 4-2

Norway 3-3

Japan 3-3

USA 3-3

Czech Republic 2-4

Switzerland 2-4

Canada 2-4

France 0-6.

 RESULTS

Round 6: Russia 9, Norway 3 ; Scotland 6, Sweden 7; Czech Republic ,11 France 3; Japan 7, USA 6 (extra end); Canada 3, Switzerland 10.

Round 5: Scotland 6, Czech Republic 4; Norway 10, Switzerland 4; Japan 1, Russia 10; France 4, Canada 15; Sweden 2, USA 8.

Sweden beat Finland by 7-2 to stand alone at the top of the Men’s rankings with five wins and one loss after the sixth session of  round-robin play at the World Junior Curling Championships in Perth, Scotland on Tuesday.

Afterwards Swedish skip Oskar Eriksson (who still has to face China, Czech Republic and Scotland) said, “we have to win at least two more games in order to qualify for the 1v2 playoff game, the goal is to go the playoffs and win a medal and hopefully it’s a Gold one”!

While Canada cruised to their third straight win – beating Denmark by 8-1 in just six ends – to bring themselves back into the mix, an illness-induced three-man Scottish line-up battled to an 8-4 win over USA. 

After his bout of illness, Scottish skip John Penny came back onto the ice against USA and said “that was very important, it was a result we needed.  I was really struggling for five ends but after I had something to eat at the break, I started to play more again”. 

Meanwhile, USA skip Aaron Wald said, “We’ve had a tough week, but we’re just going to go out for the last few games, have fun and try to win ’em.  We’ve not been consistent.  We had trouble with the ice on the first couple of losses and still haven’t gotten it back yet”.

China emerged as 6-5 winners over Norway after an extra end, a result that was heavily influenced when Norwegian skip Steffen Mellemseter slipped with the delivery of his final stone of the eighth end, to let China score three.  Afterwards, Chinese skip Jihui Huang was gracious about the incident. “The most important thing is that curling is a team game and all members of the team should be ready to forgive any mistakes made by any member of the team.”

More generally, he added, “I tried to be as relaxed as possible to play the final shot.  Every team here is playing at a high level, this is a world championship with the best teams in the world. Every team merits being here. Yesterday we lost to the Czech Republic and gave them their first win. Today, we beat Norway who were at the top of the table.”

In the fifth game of the session defending champions Switzerland beat the Czech Republic by 6-4 to keep their title defence alive.

Men’s Standings after Round 6:

Sweden 5- 1

China 4-2

Norway 4-2

Scotland 4-2

Switzerland 4-2

Canada 3-3

Finland 3-3

Czech Republic 1-5

Denmark 1-5

USA 1-5.

Photo: Colton Flasch of Canada in action this afternoon. Photo courtesy of Tom Brydone.

RESULTS

Men Round 6: Czech Republic 4, Switzerland 6; Sweden 7, Finland 2; Denmark 1, Canada 8; China 6, Norway 5 (extra end); Scotland 8, USA 4.

In an action-packed fifth session of men’s round-robin play on Monday evening at the World Junior Curling Championships in Perth, Scotland, the Czech Republic’s Lukas Klima recorded his first win, beating China by 6-5, while Norway and Sweden picked up another win each to sit tied on four wins and one loss at the top of the standings.

Canada broke their losing run in the morning session with a 9-2 win over USA.  After that game, Skip Braeden Moskowy said, “so that’s what winning feels like, I’d forgotten.  I’m happy and relieved.  That was a pretty frustrating start but we just have to keep building.  It’s not like we’re playing badly, we’ve been unfortunate and missed a few key shots, but that’s the real Team Canada, for sure”. 

In the evening Moskowy beat a three man Scottish side 10-5. The Scottish men have been battling illness as well as their opponents as they strive to stay in the medal hunt.  On Sunday, third player Colin Dick fell ill with a stomach bug.  On Monday morning, it was skip John Penny’s turn, but his teammates went out to beat Denmark 7-5. By the evening alternate Jay McWilliam was ill and Dick was back in action as Skip as Penny remained out of action. 

After the game against Canada, Dick said, “that was tough.  We all turned up and gave it 100% effort, but on the night it just wasn’t enough”.

China, skipped by Jihui Huang, continued good progress with a 9-6 win over Peter de Cruz’s Swiss defending champions on Monday morning.  But on Monday evening, the Czech Republic – without a win so far – proved too strong, and led throughout before a well-swept final draw gave Lukas Klima his first win, at 6-5. 

Afterwards, an elated Klima said, “we have been struggling with reading the ice and with our right turn draw. We lost four matches in a row and it was terrible. So finally we’ve won and we’re happy of course.  We decided to play a little more offensively against China and put them under pressure and it worked”.

Norway’s Steffen Mellemseter had a mixed day, following up a 5-8 loss to Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson with a 9-5 win over Finland’s Iiro Sipola.  After the second game he said, “China have just lost to the Czech Republic. They’ll be hungry for a win so we will have to be sharp tomorrow. We came into this event with the goal of making the playoffs”.

Photo: China's side went down to the Czech Republic in a tight game this evening. 

Men’s Standings after Round 5:

 

Norway 4-1

Sweden 4-1

China 3-2

Scotland 3-2

Finland 3-2

Switzerland 3-2

Canada 2-3

Denmark 1-4

Czech Republic 1-4

USA 1-4

 

RESULTS

Men, round 5: Sweden 10, Denmark 3; Sweden 7, USA 4; China 4 , Czech Republic 5; Canada 10, Scotland 5; Finland 5, Norway 9.

 

Round 4: USA 2, Canada 9; Denmark 5, Scotland 7; Norway 5, Sweden 8; Finland 6, Czech Republic 4; China 9, Switzerland 6.

Scotland’s Eve Muirhead and Russia’s Anna Sidorova share the lead on four wins and no losses after four sessions of round-robin play at the World Junior Curling Championships in Perth.

The Scots were in control throughout, scoring two in the first end and stealing a single in the second to set up an 8-3 win over USA’s Rebecca Hamilton.  Meanwhile, Russia handed Sweden’s Jonna McManus her first loss, winning by 9-4.

Afterwards, the Scottish skip Muirhead, who is shooting for a unique fourth world junior crown, said, “that was a good game, a solid game like last night, and we got on top of them from the start as we planned.  We put the pressure on and then she (USA skip Hamilton) started to get a bit annoyed at herself and at her team.  We were really capitalising on all of their mistakes and just played well”.

She also confirmed she was pleased with how her team is playing and supporting her.  “We’re all playing well.  Rhiann is playing excellent at lead and we’re getting set up from the start which makes things ten times easier. Vicki’s peeling well and Anna’s playing well too. So I can’t complain at all about my team - I like it when I have easy shots to play”.

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic, skipped by Anna Kubeskova, grabbed their first win of the week, beating Canada’s Trish Paulsen by 6-4.

This means Canada has just one win out of four starts, and afterwards Paulsen explained what had happened.  “That was a tough one.  It took me a while to find my draw-weight.  The ice was really good and we started to gradually adjust to it, but we had a few missed shots and we ended up with that really hurting us”.

Asked if she was starting to feel pressure about staying alive in the medal hunt, she said, “there’s a lot of competition left, so we’re ready to play the rest of it.  The only pressure I’m under is the pressure I put on myself, so basically, that’s what I have to do right now”.

Elsewhere, Norway’s Kristine Davanger recovered from being 0-6 down after four ends to eventually beat Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura by 8-7, while Switzerland’s Manuela Siegrist handed France’s Anna Li her fourth loss, with an 11-1 win.  Despite their best efforts, the French remain anchored at the bottom of the table without a win, and are now in real danger of being relegated into next season’s European Junior Challenge competition.

Photo: Scotland's Vice Skip - Anna Sloan in action on Day 3 in Perth. Photo courtesy of Tom Brydone

Junior Women’s Standings after Day 2

Russia 4-0

Scotland 4-0

Sweden 3-1

Japan 2-2

Norway 2-2

USA 2-2

Switzerland 1-3

Czech Republic 1-3

Canada 1-3

France 0-4.

RESULTS.

Women, round 4: Switzerland 11, France 1; Czech Republic 6, Canada 4; USA 3, Scotland 8; Sweden 4, Russia 9; Japan 7, Norway 8.

After three rounds of play in the women’s round-robin at the World Junior Curling Championships in Perth, Scotland, Russia, Scotland and Sweden are unbeaten in joint top position.

Russia’s Anna Sidorova followed up a morning 9-6 win over the Czech Republic’s Anna Kubeskova with a 5-2 win that handed USA’s Rebecca Hamilton her first loss - Hamilton having beaten Switzerland’s Manuela Siegrist by 10-8 in morning play.

After the game against USA, Sidorva said, “it was a really difficult game for us because it was necessary to be patient to take control over the game. The first five ends were defensive and it was difficult to get more stones in play.”  Meanwhile USA’s lead Sophie Brorson was celebrating her 20^th birthday. “I was hoping to win both on my birthday but you know – you win some and you lose some.” She said. 

“I don’t think we actually played better, I think things just went more our way this morning (against Switzerland).  It was upsetting that we lost but I think we’ve played as well as we could.”

Sweden’s Jonna McManus beat Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura by 7-6 in the morning game, before maintaining her unbeaten record in another tight game, beating the Czech Republic by 8-7.

Scotland’s Eve  Muirhead, going for a record fourth world junior title on home ice – had a 12-0 six-end whitewash over France’s Anna Li in the morning, and then another comfortable win, by 10-4 over Switzerland, eventually  delivering a perfect raised take-out and stay to score four in the ninth and end the game.

Afterwards, Muirhead said, “that was a solid game.  We played well and I think we all stepped up.  We took control from the start.  If we can keep playing as solid as that, I’m sure we can give every team a good run for their money”.

Speaking about playing at home, she added, “the support is great.  It’s so different being at home. The atmosphere is great and it’s terrific to play in something like this.  It’s great fun”.

After recording her first win in the morning, with a 10-4 win over Norway’s Kristine Davanger, Canada’s Trish Paulsen went down by 6-7 to Japan in the evening game, largely because of giving up a steal of four in the third end.

Afterwards, Canadian third Kari Kennedy said, “that wasn’t expected, but it’s better to give up a four early in the game to give yourself a chance to claw back, and we almost did.  We had our chances, we know we can play better and we will”.

Photo: Russian Sweepers in Action on Day 2 in Perth. Photo courtesy of Tom Brydone

RESULTS

Women.

Round 2: Norway 4, Canada 10; Sweden 7, Japan 6; Russia 9, Czech Republic 6, USA 10, Switzerland 8, France 0, Scotland 12.

Round 3: USA 2, Russia 5; Switzerland 4, Scotland 10; France 2, Norway 11; Canada 6, Japan 7; Czech Republic 7, Sweden 8.

Thanks to a 7-3 win over the Czech Republic in the third session of round-robin play at the World Junior Curling Championships in Perth, Scotland, Norway’s Steffen Mellemseter stands alone, unbeaten at the top of the rankings.

Behind Norway, five teams share second place on just one loss.  These include defending champions Switzerland, who handed Canada’s Braeden Moskowy his third straight loss, delivering a perfectly-weighted draw in a tense tenth end, for a 9-7 win.

Afterwards, Swiss skip Peter de Cruz said, “we’ve had a good start to the tournament, but something was missing in our attitude and it completely changed in that game against Canada – we really got going and put our real game down. They had a bit of difficulty at the beginning of the game and we played better, that made a difference. We just hung on”.

Moskowy also conceded that his team had a poor start to the game, saying, “we started off pretty slowly, and couldn’t work out the ice at all.  But the second half was the best we’ve played since we’ve been here.  We battled back when we were down, so I guess that’s something we can build on going forward”.

On the next sheet China’s Jihui Huang brought the hosts’ winning start to an end when he played a perfect shot around a front guard with his last stone to score one in the tenth for a 5-4 win.

Afterwards, Scottish skip John Penny said, “I thought we’d done enough in that last end to win it.  I played two good shots in that tenth, but so did he, and he did enough to win...that’s curling”.

Finland beat Denmark by 8-6 after an extra end, a result that pleased skip Iiro Sipola, who said, “I felt good about the win but that was not particularly a great game.  The important thing for us is to keep our place at the World Championships and avoid relegation to the championship qualifying event. With two wins, we are beginning to feel more comfortable about that”.

In the fifth game of the session, Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson beat USA’s Aaron Wald by a comfortable 10-1 in just seven ends, including a score of five in the third.

Junior Men’s Standings after Day 2

Norway 3-0

China 2-1

Scotland 2-1

Finland 2-1

Switzerland 2-1

Sweden 2-1

Denmark 1-2

USA 1-2

Canada 0-3

Czech Republic 0-3

 

RESULTS

Men, round 3:  Norway 7, Czech Republic 3; USA 1, Sweden 10; Canada 7, Switzerland 9; Scotland 4, China 5; Denmark 6, Finland 8 (Extra End).

Photo: Henrik Leek of Sweden, courtesy of Tom Brydone 

Canada’s Braeden Moskowy and his Saskatchewan team came into the 2001 World Junior Curling Championships in Perth, Scotland on a twenty-game winning streak, having gone through Canada’s province and national championships unbeaten, but this record was undone twice in the opening day’s play. 

First Norway’s Steffen Mellemseter beat the Canadians by 9-7 in an extra end, and then Sweden took a 6-5 victory when Moskowy’s last draw for his first win was heavy and long in the tenth end. 

Norway then went on to beat USA’s Aaron Wald by 8-3. “It’s our fifth appearance in a World Juniors,” said Mellemseter after the game, “we’ve never had two victories on the first day! So it’s a pretty good start.” 

Scotland’s debut boy, John Penny, followed up a morning 8-4 win over Finland’s Iiro Sipola with a 7-6 victory over Switzerland’s defending champions, led by Peter de Cruz. The game was only finally decided when an umpire’s measure gave the winning shot to the Scots.  These results mean that Norway and Scotland share top spot on the rankings, with two wins and no losses. 

After losing to Norway, which undid his winning run, Canada’s Moskowy said, “that wasn’t part of the plan to lose that one.  It sucks, but we knew our winning streak had to end sometime”, while after his second loss he said, “this is probably the worst day of my career.  We wanted to come in and have a strong first day, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.  When you’re playing against good teams like Sweden, all you can ask for is a shot to win. We gave ourselves that, but unfortunately I did not execute it and that’s too bad”. 

By contrast, Scotland’s Penny said, “that was absolutely great, we just went in to play our own game, the normal game the way we have been playing it, no different really”. 

Six teams – China, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and USA are now on one win and one loss, while, like Canada, the Czech Republic are still looking for their first win.

 Photo: Canada's Braeden Moskowy delivers in Draw 1. (photo courtesy of Tom Brydone)

Junior Men’s Standings after Day 1

Norway 2-0

Scotland 2-0

China 1-1

Denmark 1-1

Finland 1-1

Switzerland 1-1

Sweden 1-1

USA 1-1

Canada 0-2

Czech Republic 0-2

 

RESULTS

Men, round 2: Switzerland 6, Scotland 7; Finland 9, China 6; Czech Republic 3, Denmark 8; Norway 9, USA 3; Canada 5, Sweden 6.

 

Men, round 1: Denmark 2, China 9; Canada 7, Norway 9 (Extra End); Scotland 8, Finland 4; Sweden 6, Switzerland 7 (Extra End); USA 8, Czech Republic 3.

Canada’s Trish Paulsen went down to a 2-9 defeat at the hands of Sweden’s Jonna McManus in Saturday’s opening session of women’s round-robin play at the World Junior Curling Championships, being staged in the Dewar’s Centre, Perth, Scotland.

Other opening day women’s winners were Scotland’s Eve Muirhead, who beat Norway’s Kristine Davanger by 10-2 in just eight ends, thanks largely to a score of three in the sixth and a steal of four in the eighth; Russia’s Anna Sidorova, with a 7-3 win over Switzerland’s Manuela Siegrist; USA’s Rebecca Hamilton, who beat France’s Anna Li by 12-2; and Japan’s Sataka Yoshimura, who beat Anna Kubeskova of the Czech Republic by 7-5.

 Scotland’s Muirhead was playing in front of a home crowd as she started her campaign for her fourth world junior crown, and she said, “it’s really good out there, a lot of support - perhaps more than I thought would be in for the first draw, but it makes such a difference having that home crowd behind you”.

Meanwhile, Canada’s Trish Paulsen admitted her team were having trouble settling in so far, saying, “the girls struggled a little bit and I struggled a little bit.  They had trouble in judging weight and finding our weight.  That was tough and unfortunate.  The ice is a little different to what we’re used to basically, so we’re just trying to adjust to that... first day problems”.

Her opponents were pleased with their win, which they sealed with a draw for five in the seventh and a further single steal in the eighth.  Skip Jonna McManus said, “it felt good to win that. My team played very well. We knew we had to be patient and wait for the right moment and go on the offensive. It was nice to be able to take five, the girls did so well that it was easy for me to do the last draw and go for the five”.

USA’s Rebecca Hamilton was also pleased to open with a win.  “It’s always good to start a tournament with a win straight away.  The worlds is a great experience. I think our team played well and earned our way here. We will just try to represent our country well”.

Photo: Canada's Trish Paulsen in the head with Sweden's vice Sara McManus looking on. (courtesy of Tom Brydone)

Junior Women’s Standings after Day 1

Japan 1-0

Russia 1-0

Scotland 1-0

Sweden 1-0

USA 1-0

Canada 0-1

Czech Republic 0-1

France 0-1

Norway 0-1

Switzerland 0-1

 

RESULTS

Women, round 1: Czech Republic 5, Japan 7; USA 12, France 2; Canada 2, Sweden 9; Scotland 10, Norway 2; Switzerland 3, Russia 7.