Canada’s Team Lott/Lott pushed hard but remains perfect at World Mixed Doubles

OESTERSUND, Sweden — After three relatively stress-free victories to open the 2024 World Mixed Doubles Championship, Canada’s Kadriana Lott and Colton Lott were likely overdue to face some stress at the Oestersund Arena.

And it arrived in full force Monday afternoon against South Korea’s Jiyoon Kim and Byeongjin Jeong, who had the Canadian couple from Gimli, Man., in trouble for much of the first half of the game.

But two crucial shots from Kadriana Lott — one in the fourth and one even better in the fifth — turned the tide as Canada improved to 4-0 with a 6-4 victory over South Korea (1-3).

The win left Canada tied for top spot in Group A with the home-country favourites Isabella Wrana and Rasmus Wrana, with Becca Hamilton and Matt Hamilton of the United States close behind at 3-1.

The Lotts fell behind 3-0 through three ends after South Korea took singles in each of them — forced to one in the first, and steals in the second and third, with Kadriana Lott barely missing a pair of hard runback takeouts that led to South Korean points.

But in the fourth, Canada rallied to score three, with Kadriana Lott making a wonderful draw to tie the game.

An end later, the husband-and-wife tandem had to decide between Kadriana Lott throwing a guard or attempting a difficult takeout to remove a South Korean shot stone that was only a sliver exposed, that would leave Canada sitting two.

They chose the latter option, and it paid off handsomely as Kim was light on her last-shot draw and Canada stole a deuce and took a lead it would never surrender.

“That was, by far, probably the game-changing shot,” said Colton Lott. “We could have guarded their draw and let them have one, but I think we were both feeling that pick because it really puts them in a tough situation, and then Kadriana executed phenomenally.”

It certainly removed any lingering bad taste from missing the two runbacks earlier in the game.

“Yeah, I think it definitely kick-started me, for sure,” said Kadriana Lott, who remains the highest-ranked female player in the 20-team field with a cumulative average of 90.7 per cent through four games; next best is Switzerland’s Briar Schwaller-Huerlimann at 80.8 per cent. “Missing those last shots and in the first couple ends doesn’t put you in the greatest mindset. But I know I can hit so it was great to make that one.”

After cruising to three wins to open the event, there was something to be said for getting some pushback from an opponent, said Kadriana Lott.

“It was good for us,” she said. “I mean, it was a slow start but we’ve done it before. We know we can come back with a few good, key shots in the last little bit and we did just that and we came out strong for the win.”

“For sure,” agreed Colton Lott. “Playing all eight ends and being in that tight of a game really gets us even more engaged in what we’re doing and, and it prepares us for the end of the week.”

Canada returns to action with a pair of games on Tuesday — at 4 a.m. (all times Eastern) against Scotland’s Sophie Jackson and Duncan McFadzean (2-2) and at noon against Sweden in a battle of unbeatens.

World Curling’s live-streaming platform The Curling Channel will be the only way to watch games from the World Mixed Doubles Championship, with all sheets being shown.

For Team Canada updates, go to www.curling.ca. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For the latest scores, draw and list of teams, CLICK HERE.

The 2024 World Senior Men’s and Women’s Championships are also being played in Oestersund, with Canadian teams skipped by Susan Froud (Alliston, Ont.) and Paul Flemming (Halifax) looking to defend the gold medals won by Canadian teams in 2023. Canadian result stories from the 2024 World Seniors will be posted at www.curling.ca throughout the event.

The French version of this story will be posted as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/?lang=fr