China edges Canada in Pyeongchang Games women's curling

PYEONGCHANG - China managed to keep a slight chance of entering the semifinals after edging Canada 7-5 Tuesday afternoon in the round robin session of women's curling at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics here.

Following two consecutive losses in the previous two days, China would have lost any chance it had to enter the semifinals if it lost another match.

"We were not in our best shape in the previous two games. Today, we adjusted ourselves well and had a relatively 'normal' start," said Chinese skip Wang Bingyu after the match.

"We didn't think of the semifinals but just tried to play our best," she said.

The two teams opened the match with a 0-0 draw, as Canada, with the hammer, failed to gain any point in the first end in face of the strong defense of the Chinese side.

China capitalized on a series of mistakes of the Canadians to gain two points in the second, while Canada got back one point in the third by taking advantage of the hammer and two more points in the fourth on a key mistake of the Chinese skip.

The fifth end turned out to be decisive, as China, taking chances after the Canadian vice-skip made a couple of mistakes, managed to gain three points and turn the tide 5-3.

The two sides had a see-saw game in the rest of the match, with Canada failing to level the score till the end.

The Canadian team, made of 2017 world champions, said that they were not yet ready to give up the hope of entering the semifinals.

"The great thing about this team is that they have some honest conversations about where the gap (between them and the best team in the world) might be, and they are going to work hard to erase any gap there and come on fighting tomorrow," said Canada coach Renee Sonnenberg.

Also on Tuesday afternoon, South Korea beat the United States 9-6, and Japan lost to Britain 8-6.

Ten teams are competing in the women's curling competitions of the PyeongChang Games, with the top four finishers from the round-robin to qualify for the semifinals.

South Korea booked a ticket to the semifinals with six wins and one loss in the round-robin. It was followed by Sweden on five wins and two losses, and Britain and Japan on five wins and three losses.

China and United States shared the fifth place each with four wins and four losses.