GANGNEUNG, South Korea – With one day of round robin play remaining, Canada is in a six-country logjam for top spot after two crucial and decisive victories Wednesday at the 2024 Wheelchair Curling World Championships.
The Canadians defeated Latvia, in first place entering Wednesday’s play, 9-2 then crushed Czechia 13-4. It was just what the doctor ordered for Canada after two losses on Tuesday.
Canada, China, South Korea, Latvia, Norway and Sweden are all tied for first place with six wins and three losses.
Lurking closely behind are Slovakia at 5-4 and Italy and the U.S. at 4-5.
The top six teams from the round robin advance to the playoffs. The top two receive a bye while the remaining four play in the first round.
“It feels good to get back on the winning side,” said Canada’s skip and lead Mark Ideson of London, Ont. “Yesterday was tough, but we played solid and stuck to our game plan today and it worked out really well.”
In the match against Czechia, the Canadians scored seven in the fifth end and three more in the sixth before the opposition conceded.
“Honestly, the end wasn’t really looking like it was going to turn into that,” said Ideson. “We got a bit lucky, they got a bit unlucky, and in the end there was just a bunch of yellow rocks everywhere.
‘’I’ve never seen or been part of a seven-ender before, so it was pretty unusual.”
Joining Ideson were fourth Jon Thurston of Dunsford, Ont., third Ina Forrest of Spallumcheen, B.C., and second Gil Dash of Wolseley, Sask.
The round robin concludes Thursday when Canada faces Norway (Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET) and Sweden (Thursday, 5 a.m. ET).
The playoff qualifier and semifinals are on Friday and the medal matches Saturday.
All games will be available to watch on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@curling1.
