Korea captures first world wheelchair mixed doubles title on home soil

It was a near perfect week for Team Korea at the 2024 World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship at Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, South Korea, as the hometown team earned its first gold medal in the history of the event.

Team Korea, who consists of players Minkyong Cho and Taeyeong Jeong and coaches Mihye Park and Bongkyeong Hwang, took down Team China (Meng Wang and Jinqiao Yang) to become the first host nation to win gold at a world wheelchair mixed doubles championship.

“I’m feeling very, very good,” said Cho. “We were very desperate for this win because we were preparing for a long time.

“We didn’t win any medals for a long time and our organization was very supportive and they were hoping for a medal. So we really had to get it for them, too.”

The biggest turning point came in the second end when China’s last-rock hit for three crashed on a guard and resulted in a stolen point for Korea. It was an untimely four-point swing that gave the Koreans some breathing room—and they never looked back.

Trailing by four at the half, China activated its powerplay in hopes of generating its first multi-point score of the game, but the attempt was quashed by Korea and led to a force. Korea responded with a three-pointer in the sixth and cruised to an 8-3 win.  

Team Italy (Orietta Berto and Paolo Ioriatti) prevailed over Team Japan (Aki Ogawa and Yoji Nakajima) to claim bronze. Italy stole four in the seventh end to break away in the third-place game that was tied up to that point. Japan was run out of rocks in the final frame as Italy went on to win 8-4.

“This was the second time we’ve played for bronze,” said Ioriatti. “Two years ago, we lost that game, and we wanted a medal now. The colour of the medal wasn’t important for us, we just wanted a medal this year.”

No country has won multiple medals in the history of the tournament.

It was a tough week for Team Canada (Collinda Joseph and Dennis Thiessen) who finished the round robin at 2-4 and missed the playoffs. Joseph and Thiessen won bronze at last year’s tournament in Richmond, B.C.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/category-all-posts-fr/?lang=fr.