Rachel Homan stays perfect, defeats Norway at women's curling worlds
Top-ranked duo Laura Walker, Kirk Muyres improve to 3-0 at mixed doubles nationals
Canada's Rachel Homan continued to roll at the women's world curling championship with a 9-4 win Monday over Norway's Marianne Roervik.
Homan improved to 4-0 after Canada's lone game of the day at Centre 200.
Tuesday will be an important day for Homan, vice Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes because they face two undefeated countries.
Homan takes on Italy's Stefania Constantini (4-0) in the morning and defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland (5-0) at night.
Norway shook hands when Homan hit for three points in the eighth end Monday.
After blanking the third, Homan's shot stone on the button had opposing stones above and below in the fourth. Canada's sweepers Miskew and Wilkes dragged Homan's draw and curled it to the four-foot rings for another deuce and a 4-1 lead.
"Really well swept," the skip said. "Tracy's reading the line really good and called a good one there. Definitely a huge shot we needed to make sure we scored because it was looking like a steal for a while there.
"We're all making a ton of big shots. It's been going really good this week and hopefully it can continue."
WATCH | Homan downs Roervik:
Norway countered with its first deuce of the game in the fifth end to trail 4-3.
Kristin Skaslien, who throws fourth stones for Roervik, navigated guards for a takeout at the back of the rings. A measurement on second stones confirmed Norway's two points.
But Canada tightened its grip in the sixth end with Homan's triple takeout to lie three with her first stone.
Skaslien's shooter rolling wide left the Canadian skip a draw for a 6-3 lead.
Canada curled 92 per cent as a team in the game, led by Homan's 94 per cent.
"[She's] working really hard and it's showing," Miskew said. "The difference this year is we're all throwing the rock very similar so she knows exactly how she has to throw her stones and trust what we tell her to make every shot.
"She'll make anything out there."
Homan opened the championship with a 7-6 victory over Sweden, a 7-4 defeat of Denmark, and a 10-6 win over the United States.
Norway (2-3) bounced back in Monday's evening draw with a 11-5 victory in nine ends over Turkey's Dilsat Yildiz (1-4).
Italy downed Tabitha Peterson of the U.S. 10-3 on Monday afternoon to drop the latter to 2-3.
South Korea's Eunji Gim (3-1) was a 9-4 winner over Japan's Miyu Ueno.
Estonia's Liisa Turman (1-4) went an extra end for a 10-7 win over New Zealand's Jessica Smith (1-4), but lost 10-9 to Demark (4-1) in the evening draw when Madeleine Dupont counted three in the 10th end.
Tirinzoni, Hasselborg earn 2 wins each
Tirinzoni stayed unbeaten with an 8-7 decision over Turkey's Dilsat Yildiz in the morning draw. Switzerland then won its fifth straight by beating Japan (1-4) 10-3 in eight ends in the evening draw. Tirinzoni scored three in the sixth end to go up 7-2, then added another three in the eighth to seal the deal.
Tirinzoni and teammate Alina Paetz, who throws fourth stones for the Swiss, are looking to become the first women to win five consecutive world championships.
The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 women's world championship after Tirinzoni was victorious in 2019. Tirinzoni went on to build a run of titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The top six teams in the 13-country championship advance to the playoff round. Ties for the playoffs will be solved by head-to-head results.
The top two teams from round-robin play get byes to Saturday's semifinals. The third-place team will play the sixth and fourth will play fifth in the qualifying-round games that morning.
The winners of the qualifying-round games advance to the semifinals. The semifinal losers will play for the bronze medal Sunday morning. The winners meet for the gold Sunday evening.
Homan won the 2017 world championship in Beijing with Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle. Jennifer Jones skipped the last Canadian team to win it in 2018 in North Bay, Ont.
Walker, Muyres perfect at mixed doubles nationals
Also, Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres earned a 9-3 win over Jasmin Gibeau and Audrey Laplante to improve to 3-0 at the Canadian mixed doubles curling championship in Fredericton.
Walker and Muyres, Curling Canada's top-ranked duo this season, started strong with seven points over the first four ends in the late afternoon draw.
Gibeau and Laplante (0-3) managed to get three back in the next two ends, but conceded after giving up another two points in the seventh.
Walker and Muyres represented Canada at the 2018 world championship and earned a bronze medal in Ostersund, Sweden.
Andrea Kelly and Tyler Tardi also moved to 3-0 with a 9-6 win over Chaelynn Kitz and Brayden Stewart (1-2).
Tardi was a mixed doubles semifinalist last year with Homan.
Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, the 2019 national champions and world silver medallists, slipped to 2-1 after dropping a 7-3 decision to Jennifer Armstrong and Tyrel Griffith of Saint John, N.B., in the evening draw.
Colton and Kadriana Lott of Winnipeg Beach, Man., improved to 3-0 with a 12-4 win Monday night over Jean-Francois Charest and Veronique Bouchard of Chicoutimi, Que., who slipped to 2-1.
In another evening game of interest, defending champions Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing, representing the Barrie Curling Club in Ontario, slipped to 1-2 with an 8-7 extra end defeat to Lauren Wasylkiw and Shane Konings of Unionville, Ont., who improved to 2-1. Wasylkiw and Konings scored a deuce in the eighth end to tie the game 7-7, and stole one in the ninth to win.
