CALGARY — Canada’s Kerri Einarson didn’t leave much to doubt in her semifinal contest against Japan at the World Women’s Curling Championship on Saturday afternoon.
Einarson and her rink of third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Karlee Burgess put together a dominating outing from start to finish, going on to an 11-3 victory over Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa, third Chinami Yoshida, second Yumi Suzuki and lead Yorika Yoshida.
As a result, Canada will now face Switzerland’s Xenia Schwaller in the gold medal game after Switzerland took an 8-5 win over Sweden’s Isabella Wranaa in their semifinal.
Canada didn’t waste any time getting to it, beginning with a huge first end.
The opening frame saw a ton of rocks frozen together all in a line from the top of the four foot through to the back of the eight foot, and Einarson had a shot with her final stone to get everything moving and pick up a big end. Things would work out perfectly with a quadruple runback, Canada picked up three, and the route was on.
Einarson didn’t leave much room for Fujisawa to maneuver in the second end, and Fujisawa would draw through a few guards before getting a hit and light roll to score one.
Canada was right back on the offense the next end, and Einarson had an apparent shot for four if things worked out perfectly, but the shooter wouldn’t hang on, and they’d end up picking up a pair for a 4-1 lead.
Fujisawa was left with an extremely difficult long angle raise takeout to try and get a pair in the fourth end, and once everything settled Canada would remain first and second shot for the steal of two.
Japan got one back in the fifth, and Fujisawa made a nice angle raise freeze on the button to set herself up for a steal the next end. Einarson tried a big weight angle double to potentially score a pair but would instead drive the shot rock through the house, giving Japan the steal for a 7-2 lead.
Canada lay three on Fujisawa’s next end, and she’d throw a desperation shot to try and clear things out, only to leave Canada sitting a pair. Einarson simply drew full four foot for three, and Canada had a 10-3 lead.
Japan attempted to shake hands at that point, but tournament rules said they had to play one more end, and Einarson would get another steal to make it an 11-3 final.
Earlier in the day during the quarter-finals, Japan defeated Turkiye’s Dilsat Yildiz 7-5 and Sweden down Korea’s Eujin Kim 9-5 to book their semifinal spots.
It all sets up the meeting between Canada and Switzerland for gold, with Schwaller having handed Einarson a 6-5 loss in an extra end in their round robin meeting back on Tuesday.
The bronze medal game is set for 9 a.m. with the gold medal contest hitting the ice at 3 p.m. You can catch all the action on TSN and follow along on livescores.worldcurling.org.
