Canada's skip Rachel Homan delivers a stone during World Women’s Curling Championship action against the United States in Sydney, N.S. on Sunday, March 17, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese
SYDNEY, N.S. – Canada’s Rachel Homan continued to roll at the women’s world curling championship with a 9-4 win Monday over Norway’s Marianne Roervik.
Homan improved to 4-0 after Canada’s lone game of the day at Centre 200. Tuesday will be an important day for the host team facing two countries also 4-0.
Homan faces Italy’s Stefania Constantini in the morning and defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland at night.
Norway shook hands when Homan hit for three points in the eighth end Monday. Canada took control early by scoring two points with last-rock advantage in the first end. Norway hit and stayed on an attempted peel to blank the second and trailed 2-1.
After blanking the third, Homan’s shot stone on the button had opposing stones above and below in the fourth. Canada’s sweepers Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes dragged Homan’s draw and curled it to the four-foot rings for another deuce and a 4-1 lead.
Norway countered with its first deuce of the game in the fifth end to trail 4-3. Kristin Skaslien, who throws fourth stones for Roervik, navigated guards for a takeout at the back of the rings. A measurement on second stones confirmed Norway’s two points.
But Canada tightened its grip in the sixth end with Homan’s triple takeout to lie three with her first stone. Skaslien’s shooter rolling wide left the Canadian skip a draw for a 6-3 lead.
Homan opened the championship with a 10-6 win over the United States, a 7-6 victory over Sweden and a 7-4 defeat of Denmark.
Italy downed Tabitha Peterson of the U.S. 10-3 on Monday afternoon to drop the latter to 2-3.
Tirinzoni scored an 8-7 decision over Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz (1-3) in the morning draw.
Tirinzoni and teammate Alina Paetz, who throws fourth stones for the Swiss, are looking to become the first women to win five consecutive world championships.
The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 women’s world championship after Tirinzoni was victorious in 2019. Tirinzoni went to work on a run of titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
After dropping three straight, Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg got into the win column with a quick, six-end 8-2 decision over New Zealand’s Jessica Smith (1-3).
Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont (3-1) was a 9-2 winner in seven ends over Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison (1-3) in the morning.
The top six teams in the 13-country championship advance to the playoff round. Ties for the playoffs will be solved by head-to-head results.
The top two teams from round-robin play get byes to Saturday’s semifinals. The third-place team will play the sixth and fourth will play fifth in the qualifying-round games that morning.
The winners of the qualifying-round games advance to the semifinals. The semifinal losers will play for the bronze medal Sunday morning. The winners meet for the gold Sunday evening.
Homan won the 2017 world championship in Beijing with Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle. Jennifer Jones skipped the last Canadian team to win it in 2018 in North Bay, Ont.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2024.
