The Canadian team has embraced the grind of an unforgiving schedule at the world women’s curling championship. The wins keep on coming no matter when the Ottawa-based foursome is playing.
Rachel Homan skipped the host side to a 7-2 victory over Japan’s Miyu Ueno and a 9-5 win over Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz on Wednesday to remain unbeaten at 8-0 in Sydney, N.S.
The morning victory came after a win over Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni the previous night.
That result, which came after an extra-end win over Italy’s Stefania Constantini earlier Tuesday, ended a 42-game win streak at the world championship for four-time defending champion Tirinzoni.
“It was a big day, probably too much caffeine,” Homan said. “It was a ton of fun.”
WATCH | Homan guides Canada past Japan:
Team Canada maintains their perfect record of 7-0 with a 7-2 defeat of Miya Ueno’s Japan rink at the women’s world curling championship in Sydney N.S.
Returning to Centre 200 to face a young Japanese side skipped by the 2022 world junior champion, the Canadian team of Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes took a few ends to adjust to the straighter ice on their sheet.
A defensive battle ensued with Canada breaking things open with three points in the eighth end. Miskew helped set things up by leaving two stones under partial cover to pressure the Japanese side.
Ueno tried a cross-house double but left her stone exposed. Homan made the hit and the teams shook hands after the Canadians stole a point in the ninth end.
In the evening draw, Yildiz’s side proved to be a tough out. Turkey took a 4-3 lead after a three-point seventh end but Homan had hammer down one coming home.
The Canadian made a soft-weight raise to score five points for the win, extending the Ottawa-based team’s overall win streak to 24 games.
WATCH | Homan scores 5 in final end against Turkey:
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Rachel Homan makes two great shots in the final end and lifts Canada to a 9-5 victory over Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz. The Canadian team improves to 8-0 at the world women’s curling championship.
Constantini edged South Korea’s Eunji Gim 10-9 in the morning and topped Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont 8-6 in the afternoon. The Italian moved into sole possession of second place at 7-1.
Switzerland fell to third at 6-2 after dropping a 6-5 decision to Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison. Denmark was next at 6-3 after a 7-1 win over New Zealand’s Jessica Smith.
The top six teams in the 13-team field at the end of round-robin play Friday will advance to the playoffs.
Unforgiving schedule
The Canada-Turkey game capped the second of three straight days where Homan’s side will play in the morning and at night. A long-awaited sleep-in comes Friday but will be followed by back-to-back games that afternoon and evening.
Playoff teams that don’t crack the top two could face another two-game day Saturday ahead of Sunday’s medal games. The possibility of a taxing 15-game schedule over a nine-day stretch is a possibility.
“It’s not the easiest. It is a little bit fatiguing,” Miskew said. “It’s also fatiguing to play back-to-back games. When there’s 13 teams at an event of this length, there’s going to be either back-to-back or night-morning. We just happen to have night-morning three times, which is more than we’re used to.
The competition started less than three weeks after the team ran the table to win the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, an 18-team event that’s one day longer but has an eight-game round-robin with its two-pool format.
“They usually balance it out so that if you play at night, you don’t play the next morning,” Miskew said of the nationals. “There’s not a lot of back-to-backs. But here it’s just a mix of everything.
“It’s just something that we’re not typically used to. But we’re thrown into it and getting used to it as we go.”
Seeking Canada’s 1st title in 6 years
At the world championship, each team plays a full 12-game round-robin schedule.
“I try not to think about the length of the week too much, the number of games, because then it can feel overwhelming,” Wilkes said. “So [we’re] just focusing on what’s important right now and what we can do to get ready for our next game.”
Canada’s last women’s world title came in 2018 when Jennifer Jones was victorious in North Bay, Ont. Homan won gold in her last world championship appearance in 2017 at Beijing.
Muyres, Walker rolling at mixed doubles nationals
The playoff picture became clear at the Canadian mixed doubles curling championship Wednesday.
The duos of Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres, and Kadriana and Colton Lott, capped their preliminary rounds with 7-0 records to top their respective pools. They earned byes to Thursday evening’s quarterfinals.
Taylor Reese-Hansen and Corey Chester (6-1) and Paige Papley and Evan Van Amsterdam (5-2) also topped their pools to claim quarterfinal byes.
The remaining eight teams to advance from the field of 32 were determined by records and last-shot draws to break ties.
They included Madison Kleiter and Rylan Kleiter, Steve Laycock and Nancy Martin, Andrea Kelly and Tyler Tardi and Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant all at 5-2.
Jim Cotter and Jaelyn Cotter, Aaron and Amanda Sluchinski, Riley Sandham and Brendan Craig, and Lisa Weagle and John Epping all 4-3 also moved on to Thursday afternoon’s play-in round.
Sunday’s winner represents Canada at the world mixed doubles championship April 20-27 in Ostersund, Sweden.
The national gold, silver and bronze medallists earn berths to Canada’s Olympic trials Dec. 30, 2024, to Jan. 4, 2025, in Liverpool, N.S.
Peterman and Gallant are experienced domestically and internationally having won national mixed doubles titles in 2016 and 2019 and a world silver medal in 2019.
Walker and Muyres claimed a Canadian championship in 2018 and a bronze medal at the world championship that year.
The Lotts have twice been runner-up at the Canadian championship (2018, 2021).
