The field could not be more open for teams competing in this year’s women’s world championship.
It was always going to be the case without household team names Rachel Homan, Silvana Tirinzoni and Anna Hasselborg competing in Calgary, but through two days of the competition, the results have been crazy.
The only team that you would kind of expect to be off to a great start would be Canada’s Kerri Einarson, who is 3-0 and sits atop the table. However, seeing Turkey’s Dilsat Yıldız tied with her is not something anyone probably expected to see.
Then you have two teams in South Korea’s Gim Eun-ji and China’s Wang Rui, who finished as the bronze-medal winners in 2024 and 2025, respectively, and were supposed to be in the mix at the top but have struggled to start the week. Eun-ji is 1-2 while Rui is 1-3.
It’s hard to know what to expect going forward for the rest of the week as a result, but for now, let’s focus on Sunday’s takeaways.
Canada plays mistake-free curling
By the third game in Einarson’s first three appearances at the world championship, she already had her first loss of the tournament. Not this time, though. Einarson improved to 3-0 in round-robin play with a 9-3 victory over China during the afternoon draw on Sunday.
As we pointed out in Saturday’s story, the experience factor is massive for Einarson and her teammates, Val Sweeting and Shannon Birchard — the same cannot be said for Karlee Burgess because it’s her first world championship — as they will use that to their advantage throughout the week. But what’s even more noticeable from the Canadian rink through three games is the lack of mistakes they’re making.
Not only is it clear that all four players have a great handle on what the ice is doing and feel confident they can make anything at this point, but the team’s process has also been impressive.
They’re making full “team” shots where all four players are involved in some way or another. For example, look at the fourth end against China, where with Einarson’s final shot, she made a draw for three to open the game up 4-1.
The shot wasn’t made out of her hand, but the communication on the shot was outstanding. As soon as Einarson let go of the rock, you could hear all four voices. Sweeting recognized that the line was tight, while Einarson, Bichard and Burgess discussed weight and knew the rock had a little less than her previous throw.
The talking didn’t stop as they kept relaying both weight and line calls that eventually got it to sit third shot.
Not saying Einarson’s process as a team usually isn’t at a top level, but this just feels different.
Obviously, nobody expects the full team to curl 100 per cent during a game, that would just be crazy. However, Einarson’s squad came pretty close versus China, shooting 94 per cent. The next closest team average for a single game so far is 88, done by both Switzerland and Japan.
Death, Taxes and Fujisawa being aggressive
There is nobody more aggressive in this field than Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa, but it’s something every team playing here has come to expect now. No matter if Fujisawa has the hammer or not, every end you can predict there will be a lot of rocks in play that will result in chaos.
It does work for Fujisawa, just look at their 3-0 record to start the week. But it can also be their undoing.
The good and bad were on full display Sunday. In Fujisawa’s first game of the day against South Korea’s Eun-ji — a strong opponent — it worked great. They stole four of their nine points while also putting together a three-ender as they won 9-5.
Despite Fujisawa earning a 10-9 victory versus Norway’s Torild Bjornstad in the second game, it didn’t come easy.
Japan had some bright moments in the match for sure, like a four-ender in the seventh that was followed up by a steal of two in the eighth end to lead 9-6. But they needed that to even have a chance in the first place after digging themselves a 6-3 hole.
Either way, all of Japan’s games will be entertaining this week and they will be a team in the mix at the end if they continue to stay hot.
Australia earns first-ever win
It’s crazy to think Australians don’t even have a curling club in their country, yet they’re playing in the world championship for the first time. Before you ask, they do practise, and it’s in New Zealand, which is the team they beat to clinch a spot — something says they might not have any more practise time in New Zealand going forward.
Coming into the event, Helen Williams, Sara Westman, Kristen Tsourlenes and Karen Titheridge were more or less expected to be the pushover team everyone could feel good about.
That’s not the case.
Even though they lost their first game on Saturday to Denmark, the score was closer than expected. Williams and her team lost 11-7, but after the eighth end it was tied 7-7.
That gave the Aussies the belief they needed to know they belong.
It led to them picking up the country’s first-ever win at the women’s world championship in just their second game against Norway on Sunday. It was close, but they pulled out the 7-6 win in an extra end over, that came down to a measurement.
from Sportsnet.ca https://ift.tt/gDnE3lU
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