Silkeborg, Denmark
Wednesday 20 March 2019
Finland, who came onto the ice still looking for their first win and sitting at the bottom of the table, beat joint leaders Korea by 8-3 in Wednesday afternoon’s 13th round-robin session of the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship, at the Silkeborg Sportcenter, Denmark.
Elsewhere Canada beat China, who, before this session were also joint leaders along with Sweden, by 8-7, while hosts Denmark had their second win so far, beating Scotland by 9-6, while United States were 9-6 winners over Latvia.
The losses for China and Korea mean that Sweden, who sat out this session, move into a clear lead on the table, now with one loss less than China and Korea
In the third end of the game between Finland and Korea, Finland’s skip Oona Kauste used her last stone to nudge a tap-back while keeping her own stone in play to score three points and take a 3-2 lead.
Then, in the fifth end, Kauste played a straight raise double take-out for a score of one point to take a 4-3 lead into the half-time break. The Finns controlled the game after this and won by 8-3, their first victory in the Championship.
After this first win, Finland’s Kauste said, “It’s been a really hard week for us, some tough losses and some really hard games. Yesterday against Russia losing in the last end felt better. We made a good game and I think it gave us self-confidence. We are out of the play-offs now, so we are just playing the next games, playing our best and let’s see what happens. But we are enjoying it. This is the best place to be as a curler.”
Having recorded their first win so far earlier against Japan, Denmark faced a Scottish team that has been struggling with injury. In the second end of this game, Denmark’s skip Madeleine Dupont played a raise take-out shot to open the scoring in the game with three points.
Later, in the eighth end, and with a 6-5 lead, Dupont played a tap raise to score two more points and move onto an 8-5 lead. Denmark went on to record their second win of the week, by 9-6.
This victory marked Denmark skip Madeleine Dupont’s 300th international appearance in her national colours. Speaking about this milestone, Dupont said, “I just realised a few days ago when someone asked me, and I had to look it up. You kind of get used to it but you realise it’s important when people tell you how lucky you are and how incredible it is… that’s when I appreciate it.”