CURLING: China Men and Women win gold at the Pacific-Asia Championships 2012

NASEBY, NEW ZEALAND – Both the Chinese men’s and women’s teams are celebrating after winning the finals of the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships 2012 in Naseby, New Zealand. China men won gold after defeating Japan 6-2. Japan took silver while Australia won bronze after defeating Korea. The Chinese women defeated Japan 10-4 earlier on Sunday. Korea won the women’s bronze medal game against Australia.

In the men’s final, Japanese skip, Yusuke Morozumi, kept his side in the game early on after China decided to blank the first end. Morozumi made a triple take-out and then another double take-out with his second stone in the second end, which forced China to take a single point.

After China stole another point in the third end, a score of one point in the fourth end for Japan meant the score was still close at 2-1 going into the fifth end. It wasn’t until the seventh end that China got a much needed two points thanks to a simple draw shot by Chinese skip, Rui Liu. The Japanese skip was short with his last draw to blank the eighth end and with a score of one point in the ninth end, Japan decided to shake hands and end the game in the tenth end with the final score at 6-2.

Having played in the gold medal game, China, skipped by Rui Liu and with Xiaoming Xu third, Jialiang Zang second and Dexin Ba lead, join Japan who were skipped by Yusuke Morozumi, with Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi third, Tetsuro Shimizu second and Kosuke Morozumi lead, at the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2013 in Canada.

Afterwards skip, Rui Liu said: “We are very happy to have won gold and we are very excited to be going to the World Championship again next year. We were not bad today but not as good as some of the other games we have played this week. Japan played very well, they just didn’t make some key shots. But we need to continue improving our mentality and physically and if we do that we will do well at the World Championship.”

Despite losing the gold medal game, Japan skip, Yusuke Morozumi, was not too downhearted. He said: “We are still very pleased that Japan has qualified for the World Championship next year, but are a little disappointed that we did not play to our normal standard today. We know we can play better, but it was not our day. Now we will go back to training and try to improve even more. For us to go to the World Championship in Canada we will need to win the Japan Championship in February, so we have a lot of work to do.”

In the women’s final, China, skipped by Bingyu Wang, with Yin Liu (Third), Qingshuang Yue (Second) and Yan Zhou (Lead), and Japan, skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa, with Miyo Ichikawa (Third), Emi Shimizu (Second) and Chiaki Matsumura (Lead), proved why they were the top two teams in the Championship, with little separating them in the opening stages of the game.

The shot of the game came in the fifth end when Japan skip, Satsuki Fujisawa, on her last stone, made a triple raise to take one point and tie the teams at 3-3. Fujisawa however was inches wide with an attempted tap back with her last stone which gave China skip, Bingyu Wang, the opportunity to draw for four points in the sixth end which gave China a crucial lead. Japan did not recover and in the ninth end they decided to shake hands and end the game with the final score 10-4.

Afterwards, Chinese skip, Bingyu Wang, said: “It’s great to win gold one more time. It was a very important win for us because at the last World Championship we didn’t play well. I think we needed a win to get our confidence back and we have done that here by winning the gold medal.”

She added: “Today we just played our own game. We felt no pressure as we knew we were going to the World’s which was our most important goal. If we won gold then great but if we won silver then we’re still going to the World’s so we just tried to do our best and I think we did well.”

Although disappointed, Japanese skip, Satsuki Fujisawa, was pleased with her team’s performance this week. She said: "We are still very happy that Japan has qualified for the World Women's Curling Championship next year. But we would have liked a closer game today. We will need to improve our strategy and tactics to beat experienced teams like China - they played very well."

The men’s bronze medal game proved to be another exciting game for spectators. Australia changed their line-up which saw Hugh Millikin skip the team but play second stones, Sean Hall moved up to play fourth stones, Ian Palangio third and Stephen Johns still as lead.

Korea also made a change in their line-up, with Chang-Min Kim skip, Min-Chan Kim third, Eun-Su Oh replaced Se-Hyeon Seong as second and Young-Seon Seo as lead.

Australia were rewarded for early pressure when they forced a mistake from Korea in the first end. The final draw from Korea clipped a guard and Australia stole three points. However Korea battled back, taking a score of two points in the second and stealing a single point in the third end.

Australia hit back with two points in the fourth end and a steal of one point in the fifth end to lead 6-3 going into the break. Korea skip, Chang-Min Kim, made a simple take-out in the sixth end to take two points and get within a point of Australia. However, playing fourth stones today, Sean Hall made a double take-out to score three points in the seventh end to give them a 9-5 advantage. Korea took a single point in the eighth and stole a point in the ninth but Australia finished in style as Sean Hall made a triple take-out to score one point and seal the bronze medal for Australia with the final score 10-7.

Afterwards, Australian skip, Hugh Millikan, was pleased to end the week well. He said: “It’s nice to win bronze. We’ve been in the bronze game a few times before and sometimes we’ve come up short. It’s depressing to sit there and end up with nothing especially when you’ve been playing well all week. We’ve had a great game against Korea, they played very well and it’s nice to finish the week off with a win.”

The women’s bronze medal game was a little more one sided. Korea, skipped by Eun-Jung Kim, with Kyeong-Ae Kim (Third), Seon-Yeong Kim (Second) and Yeong-Mi Kim (Lead), took advantage of hammer in the first end to score two points. Australia, skipped by Kim Forge, with Laurie Weeden (Fourth), Lyn Gill (Second) and Blair Murray (Lead), responded with a single point in the second end before Korea doubled their score with another two points in the third end. With Australia blanking the fourth end, Korea managed to steal another point to lead 5-1 at the fifth end break.

Australia took another single point in the sixth end and stole another point in the seventh end, which kept them within touching distance of Korea. However, Korea Skip, Eun-Jung Kim, made a difficult take out in the eighth end to give her team four more points which was enough to make Australia concede in the ninth end with the final score at 9-3.

Afterwards, Korea skip, Eun-Jung Kim, said: “We’re very proud to have won bronze but our first goal was to go to the World Championship so we are disappointed. To be ready for next year I think we need to play more games, practice hard and we will get better.”

She added: “We want to go to the World Championship in 2014 and there may be a chance Korea can still go to the Olympics depending on what happens at the 2013 World Women’s Championship. So we will practice hard and play many more games in order to keep on improving next year.”

The World Women’s Curling Championship 2013 will take place in Riga, Latvia (16-24 March) http://wwcc2013.curlingevents.com The Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2013 will take place in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (March 30 – 7 April) http://www.curling.ca/championships/worlds/

These championships will be the last opportunity for teams to win points for qualification to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia in February 2014. Seven men’s and seven women’s teams (along with Russia as host) will qualify automatically out of the 2013 World Championships. All remaining teams with qualification points will be eligible for a new Olympic Qualifying Event organised by the World Curling Federation in December 2013. Two men’s and two women’s teams will qualify for the final Olympic berths from this event. http://www.worldcurling.org/olympic-qualification

Final Standings PACC 2012 (Team won-lost)

Women

1. China 11-1 (Gold medal & qualified for World Women’s Curling Championship 2013)

2. Japan 8-5 (Silver medal & qualified for World Women’s Curling Championship 2013)

3. Korea 9-4 (Bronze medal)

4. Australia 4-9

5. New Zealand 3-8

6. Kazakhstan 1-9

Men:

1. China 8-1 (Gold medal & qualified for Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2013)

2. Japan 6-3 (Silver medal & qualified for Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2013)

3. Australia 5-4 (Bronze medal)

4. Korea 5-4

5. Chinese Taipei 2-4

6. New Zealand 1-5

7. Kazakhstan 0-6

For more information contact: > Danny Parker

Media Relations

World Curling Federation

Email: media@worldcurling.org

Phone: +44 7937 057 032

Ian Ford

Media Relations

New Zealand Curling Association

Email: media@curling.org.nz

Phone: 021 284 0757

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