The fifth day of round robin at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2025 was extra special.
His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh paid a visit, watched some curling and even threw a stone to the eight-foot!
The day also saw China and Korea become the first teams to qualify for the play-offs.
China had won their afternoon game against Norway, 5-2. Even though they lost against United States in the evening (3-4), China still secured their place in the play-offs.
After their afternoon win, China lead Li Nana said, “I’m very happy that we won this important game, our whole team is very excited. I feel we are all playing well so far.”
She went on to talk about her time with the team as the newest addition, saying “In our training centre our coach and my teammates helped me to improve my skills. We also encourage each other throughout the games, congratulating each other on good shots.”
Talking abut their main goal for this week, she simply added, “We want to become the champions!”
Korea and Norway shared second place on the standings after Day 4. The Koreans beat United States in the morning (5-3), partly due to back-to-back single steals in the sixth and seventh.
After losing to China in the afternoon, Norway played Korea in the evening. In that game Korea showed solid form and won, 10-3. With this win, they earned their sport in the play-offs.
Italy had a half-and-half day. In the morning, they had lost against Japan (5-8), while in the afternoon, they won against Scotland, 7-4.
In the morning, Scotland had had a 9-4 victory against Latvia, mostly due to a big score of four in the seventh end. After their win, Scotland third Gary Smith said, “I’m really happy with the win. At times we made it hard for ourselves, we need to execute more shots. But overall, we played reasonably well, so I’m quite happy.”
In the afternoon, Latvia made up for their morning loss and had a 7-5 victory against Japan.
Canada had a seven-end win over Slovakia in the morning (6-3). Afterwards, their fourth, Jon Thurston said, “We put a good game out there against Slovakia, they’re always a tough opponent. Just a veteran team. We got off to a good start, getting a two in the first that set us up well and we were able to stay in advantage. We had them throw against multiple, score a couple to stay up on the scoreboard, have them behind chasing, so it was a really good game. “
About their new line-up, he added: “I think we’re doing well, I think we are gelling. It takes some time, we’re all in new positions, working on communication, it’s probably the big thing, and just finding what supports each teammate. So, we’ll keep learning and making adjustments and just get better as the week goes on.”
He added, “Our first goal is to make the play-offs, I think we’re just focused on that now.”
Canada had a tough battle against Sweden in the evening in the rematch of last year’s semi-final. The teams were tied at 4-4 after eight ends. Sweden scored a single in the extra end to win the game and make up for their earlier loss against England (6-7).
After that game, England skip Stewart Pimblett said, “The game started off hard for us, but we showed some spirit to get back in. And we are over the moon to be honest, they are one of the best teams in the world. We seem to be riding our luck a lot, but we’re enjoying the experience. And let’s see where it takes us.”
England wanted to pick up a second win of the day when they met Slovakia in the evening. However, Radoslav Duris and his teammates had other plans. They played an excellent game and won by 10-2 in seven ends to pick up their third victory of the championship.
Behind already qualified China and Korea, there’s a four-way tie in third place. Canada, Norway, Scotland and Sweden all have five wins and four losses so far. They are followed by England and Italy, both on four wins and five losses. At the foot of the table, Japan, Latvia, Slovakia and United States are all on three wins and six losses, heading into the last day of round robin.
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