Canada advances to semifinals at World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship
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GANGNEUNG, Korea, Republic Of — Canada's Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing qualified for the semifinal after wrapping up first place in their pool at the world mixed doubles curling championship on Thursday.
The duo beat host South Korea 7-6 to finish with an 8-1 round-robin record, and received some good fortune when the Netherlands upset Estonia 8-6.
“That kind of came out of nowhere,” Jones told Curling Canada. “We just wanted to finish the round robin off strong, and obviously with a win, and we were quite content with second place. First place is just an added bonus.”
Both Canada and Estonia, who handed Canada its only loss, entered the final day of the round robin with identical 7-1 records.
As a result of finishing first in Pool A, Canada advances to Friday's semifinal against the winner of the qualifying game between Scotland’s Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat (7-2), who finished third in Canada’s pool, and Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin of the United States (7-2), who finished second in Pool B.
Japan’s Chiaki Matsumura and Yasumasa Tanida (8-1) won the other pool to advance to the semifinal, and will play the winner of the game between Estonia's Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill (7-2) and Martine Roenning and Mathias Braenden of Norway (7-2).
The gold-medal game will be played on Saturday.
Senior teams headed to playoffs
Saskatoon's Team Sherry Anderson finished round-robin play at the Women's World Senior Curling Championships with a perfect 7-0 record following a 9-2 rout of England on Thursday.
The strong result gives the two-time world senior champions a bye to the semi-final.
Team Anderson, who have won five straight Canadian senior titles, are looking to win their third world senior championship after capturing gold in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019, the last time the Canadians won the event.
On the men's side of the draw, Ottawa's Team Howard Rajala defeated Japan, 10-3, on Thursday to finish the round-robin 6-1 and clinch a spot in the playoffs.
They'll square off against Ireland in the quarterfinal.