Team Canada locks up playoff position at 2024 Pan Continental Championships

LACOMBE, Alta. — It had all the makings of Canada’s toughest assignment at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships — a showdown between two of the top three women’s curling teams on the planet.

In the end, though, it was just another display of overwhelming curling from Team Rachel Homan, who accomplished three significant goals with a dominating 8-2 win over South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex.

Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachel Brown and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renee Sonnenberg maintained their perfect record, improving to 5-0 in round-robin play, tied for top spot in the eight-team round-robin standings with Japan’s Team Miyu Ueno.

The reigning Canadian and world champs, who are ranked first in the world, also locked up a playoff berth.

And, equally as important, Team Homan guaranteed Canada’s entry into the 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship next March in Uijeongbu, South Korea.

Not a bad morning’s work against a team that arrived in Lacombe ranked third in the world.

“I think it was just a couple of shots here or there,” said Homan of the unexpected performance from Team Gim (4-1). “They were even building a really good end there (in the sixth and, as it turned out, final end) and just a few uncharacteristic mistakes by them. I think we played a pretty solid game. I’m sure they’ll be stronger when we see them next.”

The game was essentially decided in two ends. In the second, South Korea looked to have a steal set up but Homan made a wonderful runback takeout to score a deuce.

An end later, with Canada sitting three, Gim’s last shot overcurled and spilled out of the rings, leaving Team Homan a steal of three.

“It was a little bit different out there; they (sandpapered) the rocks last night so it was a learning curve for both teams,” said Miskew. “Rachel made a great shot in the second end to get two, and then we got a nice break in the third end with some good rock placement, and she just missed to give us that three-steal. It’s nice to have a lead like that against such a great team. We can still tighten up things a little bit out there, but we’re making enough shots and learning from them. We’ll try to keep battling so that we’re ready for playoffs.”

Canada picked up another three in the fifth end, and South Korea conceded after the sixth; Gim had a double-takeout to score three on her last, but was wide with her delivery and could only score a single, prompting the concession.

Team Homan is back on the ice Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Mexico’s Team Adriana Camarena (1-4), and then Canada will play Japan in the round-robin finale for both teams Thursday at 2 p.m. (all times Mountain) in a game that could decide first place in the round robin and last-rock advantage in the playoffs, dependent on Japan’s result against South Korea in Wednesday night’s late draw.

Canada, Japan and South Korea have already clinched playoff berths, with one more spot up for grabs.

Miskew said Canada will keep pressing in its final two round-robin games

“Getting hammer and rocks (choice of colour) is really important so we’ll just try to keep throwing the shots the best we can and learning the ice conditions,” she said. “We know we’ll be on those middle sheets in the playoffs.”

The top four teams make the playoffs, with the first-place team playing the fourth-place team and second playing third in the semifinals Friday at 9 a.m. The semifinal winners meet for gold Saturday at 3 p.m., while the losers will play in the bronze-medal game Friday at 7 p.m.

As the host country, South Korea was already guaranteed a world championship berth, and Japan also qualified on Wednesday morning. Two more world championship berths from the Pan Continental Championships will be decided later this week as the top four finishers besides South Korea will qualify.

In other games on Wednesday morning, Japan remained perfect with an 11-3 win over Mexico; China’s Team Rui Wang (2-3) defeated Chinese Taipei’s Team Ko Yang (0-5) 14-2; and Team Cory Thiesse of the United States (2-3) turned back New Zealand’s Team Chelsea Suddens (1-4) 6-2.

Canada’s Team Brad Gushue (5-0) plays its only game of the day Wednesday at 2 p.m. against Australia’s Team Hugh Millikin (2-3).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships is available by CLICKING HERE.

All games are being streamed live on The Curling Channel. CLICK HERE for details.

Ticket information for the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships is available by CLICKING HERE.

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