BEIJING, February 12 (Xinhua) – The newly formed Chinese curling team for women caused a great stir at the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Saturday when they beat defending champions Sweden 9-6 in the fifth round robin session.
After three straight losses, China made its alignment in the lineup, with Wang Rui, the only team member with Olympic experience, replacing the 21-year-old jumping Han Yu to play the fourth.
The change was eventually resolved, as China chose to lose the first end, won the second with three and stole two points in the fifth, which beat Sweden with a lead of 6-2 in the first half.
In the sixth end, the Swedish jumper Anna Hasselborg played a triple draw, approached 6-4 and stole two more points to level the match to 6-6 in the seventh end.
However, Wang focused on his deliveries to win the eighth with two, and made another decisive steal in the ninth to help China lead 9-6. The Chinese girls’ stable performance forced the Swede to admit his defeat before the last shot.
“In the seventh end, I missed because we did not have enough time, which gave me a lot of pressure, but we told ourselves to relax and keep things in place before the break in the eighth end,” he said. “Perfect teamwork and a stable performance were the key to our success.”
On his win against the defending champion, Wang said: “We are positive and the previous losses did not affect us. We just focused on every shot and played our best.”
In the other matches of the session, the USA was taken down by the European champion Great Britain by 10-5 for its first loss after three straight wins. ROC was beaten by PyeongChang bronze medalist Japan 10-5 for its fourth straight loss, while the reigning world champion Switzerland beat Denmark 8-5.
In the fourth round robin session earlier in the morning, the Canadian team, skipped by Sochi in 2014, was undefeated gold medalist Jennifer Jones, edged by Sweden by 7-6. Other measures saw PyeongChang 2018 second South Korea beat ROC 9-5, while Japan beat Denmark 8-7.
Source: sn.dk