World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2015 - Day 6 Roundup

Norway, USA and Estonia joined Canada and Russia in qualifying for the quarter-finals of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2015 today, following the conclusion of the round robin stage.

While those teams qualify directly for the quarter-finals, third placed team in Group C, Hungary, must await the winners of a number of tie-breakers which will take place on Friday morning to determine final standings in Groups A and B.

Denmark and Japan will play a tie-breaker to decide who finishes third in Group A, while in Group B - Sweden will play Finland and Italy will play Latvia in tie-breakers which will determine who finishes second and third in Group B.

Following the tie-breakers, the third placed team with the best draw shot challenge average (DSC) will qualify automatically for the quarter-finals.

The two third placed teams with the worst DSC’s will play against one another in the quarter-final qualification game on Friday afternoon, with the winner qualifying for the quarter-finals which take place later in the evening.

In today’s action, Norway became the third team to qualify directly for the quarter-finals following Canada and Russia who qualified earlier in the week.

Norway’s 10-2 win against Sweden on Thursday morning guaranteed them first place in the Group B standings.

On the other sheets, China won 5-4 against New Zealand while Latvia defeated Finland 12-11.

In the only other games of the morning session, Austria beat Slovenia 7-4 and Brazil picked up their first win of the Championship as they defeated Italy 12-5.

Finland, Italy and Sweden’s losses had further consequences following the final session of round robin play.

Although all three of these teams won, Finland defeating China 7-4, Sweden beating New Zealand 7-6 and Italy winning 10-1 against Slovenia, so did Latvia, who earned a 12-7 win against Austria.

That meant that all four teams finished with the same record of six wins and three loses.

As a consequence of their results against one another in the round robin, it was determined that Sweden will play Finland and Italy will play Latvia in two tie-breakers.

The winners of these tie-breakers will then be ranked second or third in Group B depending on their win loss record against one another in the round robin.

The fifth game of this session saw table toppers Norway finish the round robin unbeaten as they defeated Brazil 10-7.

In Group A, the USA were next to qualify, as they defeated Denmark 8-5 in the second morning session.

This guaranteed them a second place finish in their group and automatic qualification for the quarter-finals.

Russia meanwhile kept their unbeaten record intact as they defeated Turkey 11-5 while Switzerland won 11-0 against Slovakia in only six ends.

Japan kept their quarter-final hopes alive with a 10-7 win against France, as did the Czech Republic who beat Australia 6-4.

This group returned to the ice in the evening to conclude their round robin schedule.

There, Denmark and Japan both picked up wins, Denmark defeating Czech Republic 6-5 and Japan beating Turkey 9-5.

This left both teams sitting with a record of six wins and three losses which means that these two teams will also return to the ice on Friday morning to play in a tie-breaker which will decide who finishes third in the group and remains in the competition.

The other games in this session saw Russia finish their round robin campaign without losing a game as they won 8-1 against Australia, France defeated Slovakia 7-5 and Switzerland beat USA 9-6.

Group C concluded this year’s round robin as they came onto the ice for the last session of the day.

Whilst Canada had already qualified for the quarter-finals in first place, four other teams were still in with a chance of reaching the knock-out stages of the competition as they went into these games – Estonia, Hungary, Spain and Korea.

By the end of the session, Estonia had also qualified directly for the quarter-finals as they defeated Romania 10-2 while Hungary finished third as they stole two points in an extra end to beat Spain 8-6.

Although both Estonia and Hungary finished with seven wins and two losses, Estonia defeated Hungary earlier in the round robin therefore are ranked above them.

Group winners Canada finished off with a 12-3 win against Korea while Scotland defeated Poland 8-5. In the only other game of this session, England defeated Belarus 11-2.

All quotes from the athletes can be found here: http://worldcurling.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0241c8190a96a3d4afd003317&id=4405c3ff53&e=23d1572579

SCHEDULE (all times local MSK)

Friday 24 April 2015

Tie-breakers (08:00)

Group A: Denmark v Japan

Group B: Sweden v Finland; Italy v Latvia (winners then ranked to determine second and third place teams)

Quarter-final qualification game (15:30)

Quarter-finals (20:00)

RESULTS

Group A

Session 8: Turkey 5, Russia 11; USA 8, Denmark 5; Slovakia 0, Switzerland 11; Australia 4, Czech Republic 6; France 7, Japan 10.

Session 9: USA 6, Switzerland 9; Slovakia 5, France 7; Czech Republic 5, Denmark 6; Japan 9, Turkey 5; Russia 8, Australia 1.

Group B

Session 8: Italy 5, Brazil 12; China 5, New Zealand 4; Latvia 12, Finland 11; Norway 10, Sweden 2; Austria 4, Slovenia 7.

Session 9: China 4, Finland 7; Latvia 12, Austria 7; Sweden 7, New Zealand 6; Slovenia 1, Italy 10; Brazil 7, Norway 10.

Group C

Session 9: Scotland 10, Poland 5; Romania 2, Estonia 10; Canada 12, Korea 3; Hungary 8, Spain 6; England 11, Belarus 2.

STANDINGS after round robin (W-L)

Group A:

1.Russia 9-0 (Qualified for quarter-finals)

2. USA 7-2 (Qualified for quarter-finals)

3. Denmark 6-3 (To play Japan in tie-breaker)

3. Japan 6-3 (To play Denmark in tie-breaker)

5. Switzerland 5-4

6. Czech Republic 4-5

7. France 3-6

8. Turkey 3-6

9. Slovakia 2-7

10. Australia 0-9

Group B:

1. Norway 9-0 (Qualified for the quarter-finals)

2. Sweden 6-3 (To play tie-breaker against Finland)

2. Italy 6-3 (To play tie-breaker against Latvia)

2. Latvia 6-3 (To play tie breaker against Italy)

2. Finland 6-3 (To play tie-breaker against Sweden)

6. China 5-4

7. New Zealand 2-7

8. Slovenia 2-7

9. Austria 2-7

10. Brazil 1-8

Group C:

1.Canada 8-1 (Qualified for quarter-finals)

2. Estonia 7-2 (Qualified for quarter-finals)

3. Hungary 7-2 (Qualified for at least quarter-final qualification game)

4. Korea 5-4

5. England 5-4

6. Spain 5-4

7. Scotland 5-4

8. Poland 2-7

9. Romania 1-8

10. Belarus 0-9

Rankings are determined by rule C9 of the World Curling Federation's ‘The Rules of Curling and Rules of Competition’. Details here

Results; statistics; news; live games; videos and photos from the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2015 can be seen here on the World Curling Federation’s official event website

The webstreamed games selected for live coverage on Thursday 23 April will be Group B’s game between China and Finland at 14:30 and Hungary against Spain in Group C at 21:00. One more game from Group A at 17:45 will be webstreamed but the game has yet to be confirmed (all times local – MSK).

A full round-up of the daily action from the World Senior Curling Championship 2015, also taking place in Sochi, will be available following the conclusion of the day’s games on the event website: http://wscc2015.curlingevents.com

For more information, contact:

Danny Parker

Media Relations - World Curling Federation

media@worldcurling.org

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