Switzerland fight back to beat Denmark in women’s curling and earn Winter Olympics semi-final spot

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – Silvana Tirinzoni’s Switzerland beat Denmark 6-4 on Feb 18 to seal their spot in the semi-finals of the women’s curling competition at the Winter Olympics.

Denmark had a slender 4-3 lead heading into the final end but Switzerland set up a three-pointer to clinch their sixth win of the competition.

“Qualified sounds very good to me. It was hard to get there, so we’re relieved that we made it – a game early actually. Tomorrow is still important but now not life or death,” Tirinzoni said.

Switzerland also reached the semi-finals in Beijing four years ago, but finished fourth after losing to Japan.

Rachel Homan’s Canada also put themselves in a promising position to qualify with a hard-fought 8-7 win over Italy, which needed an extra end to be decided.

Canada are joint-third in the standings with five wins and three defeats, alongside Gim Eun-ji’s South Korea and Tabitha Peterson’s United States.

SOUTH KOREA BEAT SWEDEN

Earlier on Feb 18, South Korea claimed an impressive 8-3 win over round-robin leaders Sweden.

South Korea made a quick start to the game, bagging a three-pointer in the first end and then stealing five points over the next three ends to hand Anna Hasselborg’s side just their second defeat of the competition.

“We got the first three straight steals when they missed them, so we seized on a good opportunity, and that’s why we got that good score. I felt great about the win,” Gim said.

South Korea and Canada will meet in their final round-robin game on Feb 18, with the winner proceeding to the semi-finals.

Sweden, who are top of the standings with six wins and two defeats, have already qualified for the semi-finals and finished their round-robin campaign with a 9-4 win over China.

Sophie Jackson’s Britain beat Japan 9-3 to keep their hopes of qualification alive, but they will need to win their final game on Feb 18 and hope for other results to go their way.

“We’re absolutely delighted. We knew that we needed two wins from today to keep our hopes alive. We’ve done that, and no matter what happens tomorrow, we’ve done ourselves proud today,” Britain’s Rebecca Morrison said.

Teams play nine matches in the round-robin stage. The top four advance to the semi-finals on Feb 20, with the third-place play-off on Feb 21 followed by the final on Feb 22. REUTERS