22 April 2024
Day three of the World Mixed Doubles Championship saw another three round-robin sessions take place.
Group A played twice, with Switzerland following up a 10-3 morning win over Türkiye in just six ends, with an 8-4 win over Estonia, they remain unbeaten at the top of the rankings, on five wins.
Italy also had two wins and sit in second place on four wins and one loss. They beat Türkiye by 8-3 in their evening game after beating Japan by 8-2.
Behind these two front-runners, four teams – Estonia, Germany, Japan, and Norway all share third place. Norway beat Germany by 7-4 in their evening game, while Japan were also 7-4 winners, over Spain.
After losing to Norway in their morning game, France finally got themselves a victory with a 10-8 win over Denmark in their evening game. This leaves Spain as the only Group A team yet to record a win.
Group B
Group B only had one game, where Canada and Sweden both maintained their unbeaten records, to share the lead on four wins and no losses.
The Canadians faced Korea and had to come from behind to level the game at 3-3 in the fourth end. With a draw against three in the seventh end, the Canadians led 6-4 in the final end, where they eventually ran the Koreans out of stones.
On the next sheet, Sweden faced New Zealand. By the fifth end, the Swedes led by 5-1 when Isabella Wranaa brought her final stone through a gap to hit and score one more point, for a 6-1 lead. The Swedes went on to win by 7-1 in just six ends. Afterwards, Sweden’s Rasmus Wranaa said, “we had a good start to the game, and we’ve had good speed in all of the games.”
Behind these two co-leaders, United States sit in third place, helped by an 8-4 win over Scotland. The Americans were ahead by 8-0 at the fourth-end break and eventually they ran the Scots out of stones in the eighth end. After this win, Matt Hamilton said, “so far, so good. We were a little fortunate there, but Scotland are not a team you can take lightly, and we had to grind it out. We played pretty good, and managed the rocks well.”
In the other games in this Group, Czechia beat China by 9-2, after going out to an 8-0 lead in the first four ends. After this win, Czechia’s Zuzana Paulova said, “we did well there, we had a really good start and we felt good. We’ve had a shaky start to this championship, but we hope that if we play like this, we will reach our goals and be close to the play-offs.”
Netherlands played Australia and were tied 4-4 after five ends. With four of their own stones already sitting in the house, Dutch female player Vanessa Tonoli knocked out the only Australian stone for five points. This was enough for the Australians, who then conceded, with the Dutch winning by 9-4, a second win of the campaign so far for them.
