ALONE AT THE TOP!

Team Canada soars to top of BKT Tires world women’s standings

It didn’t take long for Team Canada to make its presence felt at the 2024 BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship in Sydney, N.S.

The Canadians, skipped by Rachel Homan, are alone in first place with a 3-0 record after only four draws into the 13 team, week-long event at Centre 200.

Whether the Canadians will be there at the end of the week remains to be seen, but for now, sniffing the sweet air of first place this early is heaven for Homan and her support group of vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachel Brown and coached by Don Bartlett and national coach Viktor Kjell, from the Ottawa Curling Club.

It was the 19th straight win for the Canadians in Grand Slam, Scotties Tournament of Hearts and world competition.

“We’re gelling together and we’re at our top performance with team-believing and communication,” said Homan, who came back from an early deficit to earn a hard-fought 10-6 victory over skip Tabitha Peterson’s Team U.S.A. (1-2) Sunday afternoon. “There’s going to be misses as we learn the sheets. It’s tough to play 100 per cent throughout this amazing field.”

Team Switzerland, skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni, had the bye and holds down second place with Team Italy with a 2-0 record. Tirinzoni and last-rock shooter Alina Paetz are looking to become the first women to win five consecutive world titles.

The Italians, skipped by Stefania Constantini, rocked Team Sweden (0-3), skipped by Anna Hasselborg, 6-4, putting the 2018 Olympic gold-medal winner in danger of falling out of the race early. 

Skip Miyu Ueno’s Team Japan (1-1) had a chance to join the Swiss and Italians in second but dropped a 6-4 decision to Team Turkey (1-2), skipped by Dilsat Yildiz.

The Americans figured to be a tough test for Team Canada, and they were. Peterson and her sister Tara, who throws second stones, and lead Becca Hamilton, combined to win a bronze medal at the 2021 world championship, ending a 15-year medal drought for U.S. women’s curling at the worlds. All have Olympic experience, along with third Cory Thiesse.

The Americans played a perfect first end and only a tough double by Homan kept the damage to two points.

But from then on the Canadians started to ramp up the pressure, forcing Peterson to draw the button facing two for one in the third, and make two pressure draws to the button and then four-foot to get another single in the fifth to knot the game at 4-4. 

Eventually, though, Peterson couldn’t keep her finger in the dam and it burst in the eighth end when Homan had a draw for three to take a 9-6 lead. One shot earlier Pederson tried a corner freeze to a Canadian stone partially buried but came up well short.

Homan admitted tough games can be helpful.

“Absolutely,” she said. “I don’t think anyone can walk through a field like this, just phenomenal teams and athletes, all the countries and resources poured into it and it’s a great feeling to be able to battle with the best out here.”

Wilkes said the Americans always play the Canadians tough.

“They’re a great team,” she said. “Every time we play them we know we have to bring our A game and it’s going to be a battle.”

Peterson felt her team may have wilted down the stretch.

“I don’t know. We played pretty good, kind of kept the pressure on them. They didn’t let up and we had a couple of misses late in the game that just tipped it their way.”

Team Canada takes on skip Marianne Roervik’s Team Norway on Monday afternoon in its lone game of the day.

In the other game on the afternoon draw, Team South Korea (2-1), skipped by Eunji Gim, scored a 12-4 win over skip Jessica Smith’s Team New Zealand (1-2). Earlier in the day the Kiwis won their first game ever in world women’s championship competition, defeating Team Scotland (1-1).

Other teams with the bye included Denmark (1-1), Norway (1-1), Scotland (1-1) and Estonia (0-2).

The top two teams in the standings advance directly to the semifinals. The third- through sixth-ranked teams compete in playoff qualification games (3 vs. 6; 4 vs. 5) with the winners advancing to the semifinals. The semifinal winners play in the gold-medal game and the losers play for bronze. 

The final goes March 24.

The 2024 BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship continues with a draw at 7 p.m. (all times Atlantic).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2024 BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2024 BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship, go to www.curling.ca/2024worldwomen/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2024worldwomen/nouvelles/?lang=fr