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.