CALGARY — So far so good for Kerri Einarson at the BKT World Women’s Curling Championship currently underway in Calgary.
Einarson and her Team Canada foursome of third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Karlee Burgess rolled to a 9-2 victory over China’s Han Yu, skip Rui Wang, second Ziqi Dong and lead Jiayi Jiang in their lone game of the tournament on Sunday afternoon, improving to 3-0 for the event. China drops to 1-2.
Canada had the hammer in the opening end and things set up well for Einarson’s final rock, with a wide open draw for a pair. She’d draw back full eight foot, and Canada had the early 2-0 lead.
A great takeout through a port on Einarson’s first shot of the second end got Canada out of a bit of trouble, and Han would make a draw to the four foot for one. One end later, Einarson needed a takeout on a China stone in the four foot to get a single, and she’d get the job done for a 3-1 lead through three.
The exchange of single points continued the next end, this time with Han getting a slick touch take-out with her final rock, rolling full four foot for one.
Things set up much, much better for Einarson in the fifth, as a perfect draw on her final rock left Canada laying four. Han made a nice double to get a pair, but Einarson had a draw to the four foot for three, and after some great sweeping by Burgess and Birchard, it would get there for a 6-2 lead.
China found themselves in some trouble in the sixth, with Han left with a difficult angle raise take-out to prevent a Canada steal. She’d be unable to make the shot, Einarson stole one, and would go into the seventh with a 7-2 edge.
Han got one back in that end, but things were all but academic at that point. Einarson made a nice pick on a China stone in the four foot with her final shot of the eighth to score a pair and take a 9-3 lead. Han decided to shake hands, and the win was in the books.
Results from the morning draw saw Sweden’s Isabella Wranaa score two in the 10th for a 9-8 win over Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont, Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa down Korea’s Eunji Kim 9-5, Scotland’s Fay Henderson defeat United States’ Delaney Strouse and Australia’s Helen Williams take a 7-6 extra end win over Norway’s Torild Bjoernstad.
Other results from the afternoon draw saw Japan down Norway 10-9 in an extra end, Turkiye’s Dilsat Yildiz edge Scotland 5-3 and Sweden roll to a 9-4 win over Italy’s Stefania Constantini.
Standings through four draws are as follows:
Canada (Einarson) 3-0
Japan (Fujisawa) 3-0
Turkiye (Yiliz) 2-0
Sweden (Wranaa) 2-1
Australia (Williams) 1-1
Denmark (Dupont) 1-1
Korea (Gim) 1-1
Switzerland (Schwaller) 1-1
China (Wang) 1-2
Scotland (Henderson) 1-2
Italy (Constantini) 0-2
United States (Strouse) 0-2
Norway (Bjoernstad) 0-3
Canada plays a single game on Monday as they face Denmark in the afternoon draw at 2 p.m. You can catch that game on TSN and follow along at livescores.worldcurling.org,
