Jones, Laing headed to playoffs at World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship
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Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing of Canada have clinched a playoff spot at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship after picking up two wins on Wednesday.
In the early draw, Canada routed Denmark’s Jasmin Lander and Henrik Holtermann, 8-2, before stealing an extra end win over Hungary’s Linda Joo and Lorinc Tatar, 8-7, to improve their record to 7-1 and secure a top three position in Group A with one more round-robin game left on Thursday.
“It was tough,” Jones told Curling Canada regarding the win over Hungary, who have just one win this week. “It was definitely a grind; they played very well and we had a hard time scoring a multiple end. But we hung in there. Experience helps, and we just had to make some good shots and put some pressure on them.”
Laing said the difficult win could help them going into the playoffs.
“Looking back, it’s good to get a little bit of frustration in a game,” Laing told Curling Canada. “We haven’t had a ton of adversity this week. It’s good to have to battle back and have some tight games, see what we’re made of, and make some big shots, and we did that. It’s fortunate they missed their last, but it was a really tough shot.”
Canada, Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill (7-1) and Scotland’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat (6-2) have all clinched playoff spots from Group A. If the Canadians can down the host South Koreans, featuring JiYoon Kim and ByeongJin Jeong, in their round-robin finale on Thursday and Estonia falls to Netherlands, Jones and Laing would get the top spot in the group and a bye to the semifinal on Friday. A second-place finish would mean they would play the third-place finisher in Group B in the semifinal qualifier.
Canada's lone lost of the week at the Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, South Korea came against the Estonians.
“I’d like to put a full game together [on Thursday], a full eight ends and just try to go into the playoffs feeling really confident,” said Jones. “We just want to play well; we’re having so much fun, so I just want to play as many games as we possibly can.”
The husband and wife duo from Horseshoe Valley, Ont., are looking to win Canada's first ever gold-medal at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. The country has earned two silver and two bronze medals since the event’s inception in 2008.
Senior teams continue to roll
Saskatoon's Team Sherry Anderson may be the team to beat at the women's World Seniors Curling Championship.
Anderson, third Patty Hersikorn, second Brenda Goertzen and lead Anita Silvernagle hammered Lithuania, 9-1, on Wednesday in Gangneung, South Korea to improve their perfect record to 6-0 and clinch top spot in Group A. Top spot gives Team Anderson a bye to the semis.
Despite the big victory, Canada isn't looking ahead to the playoffs.
“No, no, we want one more win because we want to keep hammer,” Hersikorn told Curling Canada after the win. “We just we just want to finish strong; each game we've kind of been building a little bit, and we just want to keep finishing off games.”
Team Anderson, who have won five straight Canadian senior titles, are looking to win their third world senior championship after capturing gold in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019, the last time the Canadians won the event.
Canada wraps up their round-robin schedule Thursday against England.
On the men's side, Canada's Team Howard Rajala found success too, topping Finland 7-3 on Wednesday and improving their record to 5-1.
Canada finishes the round-robin against Japan on Thursday.