Canada's Gushue falls to Japan's Abe in Pan Continental curling championship semi

Canada's Brad Gushue fell 8-4 to Japan's Shinya Abe in the men's semifinals at the Pan Continental curling championship on Thursday night in Lacombe, Alta.

Gushue, who won gold the last two years at the event, will play American John Shuster in the bronze-medal game on Friday. Abe will meet China's Xiaoming Xu in the gold-medal game on Saturday.

"Absolutely, there's disappointment," Gushue said. "Personally, I felt like I didn't have a very good game. Disappointed that I let the guys down. Disappointed I let myself down.

"We'll have to try and regroup and have a strong game tomorrow. It's just disappointing that our worst game was in the semifinals."

Abe led 5-4 after six ends, and after a scoreless seventh end, scored three more points in the eighth and ninth before Gushue from St. John's, N.L., conceded the 10th and final end.

"They had good feel and we didn't," Gushue said. "I overthrew my draw against two and gave up two. We were on our back foot after that, really trying to chase and while we had some opportunities, they either made a great shot, got a break or we messed up."

Gushue tuned up for the playoffs earlier Thursday by posting a 7-4 victory over Xu. Gushue closed out the win by making a double-takeout for a single in the 10th end.

His team of vice Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker was unbeaten in round-robin play at 7-0.

Japan (4-3) fell into fourth place after dropping an 8-2 decision to Shuster (6-1), who fell to Xu (4-3) 7-4 in the other semifinal Thursday.

In other early games, New Zealand's Anton Hood dumped Taiwan's Ken Hsu 13-3 and South Korea's Jaebeom Lee outscored Australia's Hugh Millikin 9-7.

South Korea finished at 3-4 ahead of Australia and New Zealand at 2-5. Winless Taiwan (0-7) was relegated to the B division next year.

In women's play, Ottawa's Rachel Homan improved to 7-0 with an 8-6 win over Japan's Miyu Ueno (6-1) earlier on Thursday.

Both teams have qualified for the semifinals Friday morning. South Korea's Eunji Gim (5-2) has also secured a playoff spot.

China's Rui Wang (4-3) grabbed the final spot after a 9-4 win over American Cory Thiesse (3-4) on Thursday.

Homan will meet Wang in one semifinal, with Gim and Ueno facing off in the other, for a chance to play for gold on Saturday.

Competition continues through Saturday at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex. The event is a qualifier for the 2025 world championships.