Canada, Korea Take PanCon Curling Gold
Defending champions and hosts Canada, skipped by Brad Gushue, defeated Korea’s Jongduk Park 8-3 in a nine-end men’s final at the Pan Continental Curling Championships in Kelowna, B.C.
Meanwhile, Park’s countrymates skipped by Eunji Gim defeated Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa 11-6 in the women’s final.
After a blanked opener, Gushue made a tricky hit and stay for a score of one in the second end.
In the third, Park produced a nose hit to score two and take a 2-1 lead into the fourth, which Canada blanked. Gushue attempted to raise a guard with a runback for two in the fifth but wasn’t quite accurate enough, taking just one and levelling the game going into the break.
The game took a turn in the sixth frame when Canada took a 4-2 lead. Gushue played a hit and roll to lie two and the Korean skip’s attempted takeout caught a guard, handing the Canadians a steal of two.
Canada continued to apply pressure in the seventh. With two Canadian counters in the house, Park missed and rolled out, giving Canada another two and a 6-2 lead.
After a Korean save in the eighth, Canada dealt the decisive blow with a draw to the button for two and an 8-3 lead, whereupon Korea conceded.
The veteran Gushue had praise for the Koreans, who defeated the Canadians in the opening round robin match of the tournament.
“Mark (Nichols) and I have been at this now for 30 years,” said Gushue. “I think those guys will get that experience the more they play. That experience and playing in big games like that, you learn in those moments.
“Even if you don’t have the best game, you can sometimes make it happen and get the win.”
In the women’s final, the teams swapped scores of two in the first three ends. In the fourth end, with Korea leading 4-2, Gim’s last stone wrecked on a guard, leaving Japan’s Fujisawa with an open draw for three points and a 5-4 lead.
Korea restored their lead in the fifth end when Gim made a hit for two for a 6-5 advantage going into the fifth-end break.
In the sixth end, Japan’s Fujisawa missed her hit for a possible two, and had to settle for a single, to tie the game, at 6-6.
The doors opened for Korea in the seventh end, when Korea had an open draw to score three and take a 9-6 lead. In the eighth end, there were four Korean stones in counting positions as Fujisawa came to play her last. Her draw was slightly heavy, meaning that Japan gave up a steal of one to increase Korea’s lead to 10-6.
Fujisawa faced three Korean stones on her final shot in the ninth end. Her hit rolled too far, giving another steal to give Korea for an extended 11-6 lead. Japan conceded, crowning Korea as champions.
“We were nervous in the beginning,” said Gim. “But we kept ourselves up and we were able to get the gold, so we’re really happy about that.
“For the first half we were struggling a bit, but my teammates and the coach kept me going. I was able to deal with that and go on to win.”
World men’s championships qualifiers comprised the top five finishers: Canada, Korea, bronze-winning Japan, fourth place USA and fifth-ranked New Zealand.
Joining hosts Canada at the women’s world championship are Korea, Japan and bronze-winning USA.