LOHJA, Finland – Canada’s Marie Wright and Jamie Anseeuw lost their final round robin game 7-6 to Denmark and will not advance to the playoff round at the 2022 World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championships.
Canada ends the tournament – the first-ever in the new discipline of mixed doubles – with three wins and five losses for seventh place in its nine-team pool. Four of those losses were by two points or less.
Heading into the final day of preliminary play, Wright and Anseeuw needed to beat the Danes and hope Germany lost to Turkey. Neither happened.
“They represented Canada well,” said coach Dana Ferguson of her pupils. “I was lucky to be coaching them, and proud to be a part of this team.”
Canada’s game with Denmark ended in heartbreak, as the Danes were able to overcome a five-point deficit in the last three ends. Trailing 6-1 after five ends, Denmark took two points, stole three, and finished it off by stealing the eighth end.
At the same time, the other results didn’t go Canada’s way either. Germany beat Turkey handily, meaning Canada wasn’t going to qualify for playoffs regardless of its result against Denmark. USA also lost to Latvia, which moved Latvia into second place behind Norway, and dropped the Americans into the logjam (with Slovakia, Denmark, and Germany) at 4-4.
In Pool A, Hungary, Sweden, and Italy took the top three spots, without any need for tiebreakers. Playoffs begin Wednesday night, with a qualification round that features Italy vs. Latvia and Sweden vs. USA.
Although their week is done, Canada’s Ferguson is taking a lot of good from this inaugural competition.
“We learned a lot this week, that we’ll be able to put in action moving forward,” said Ferguson. “I love that so many countries are competing. It’s a great opportunity for so many players, from all over the world to gain experience.”
The gold medal game will be played Thursday at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET).
For scores and results visit: https://curlit.com/wwhMDcc/Default.aspx
For the event livestream visit: https://www.youtube.com/c/CurlingFinlandOfficial/
With files from Curling Canada
