Canada 6 Switzerland 4
SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. — Canada’s Jennifer Jones won her second straight game to start the women’s world curling championship in dramatic fashion Sunday.
The host team from Winnipeg defeated Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher 6-4 to get to 2-0 with a game at night against Norway’s Linn Githmark (1-1).
A raise triple-takeout by Jones to get out of major trouble in the eighth and a shocking fall by Swiss second Heike Schwaller in the fourth end were the turning points in the game played in front of a full house of 2,410 at the Credit Union i-Plex.
Jones, third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin were much sharper in the opening ends of the game than they were the previous night against Sweden. Jones curled 100 per cent over the first five ends, while Feltscher missed several takeout shots.
“We kind of kept it a little simpler and we feel really comfortable with the ice now, which makes it easier and hopefully we’ll just get stronger,” Jones said.
Schwaller fell head first onto the ice while sweeping Feltscher’s first throw of the fourth end. Her jaw and shoulder took the brunt of the fall.
The Swiss second was in obvious pain, but continued to play. She applied an ice pack to her chin, shoulder and left knee between thrown stones and during the break.
A red-eyed, upset Schwaller refused to speak to reporters after the game. She went straight to physiotherapy ahead of Switzerland’s game against Sweden in the evening draw.
“It looked like she hurt herself,” Jones said. “She’s got a couple of bruises and I’m sure she’ll be a little bit black and blue. She bounced back and played well. That’s what happens when we play on ice. It’s slippery.”
Feltscher’s stone was removed from play when Schwaller made contact with it. Canada was already lying two counters at the time and was able to set up to score three for a 3-1 lead.
“I felt really bad for them because she was close to making some sort of shot,” Officer said. “I felt bad she was hurt, but at the end of the day, it’s the way it goes. It didn’t mean we didn’t feel bad about the situation.”
Jones got out of a major jam in the eighth when the Swiss were looking at their first multiple-point end to either tie the game or take a lead. After missing a takeout with her first shot, Jones made a raise triple takeout to leave Canada’s counter on the back four as shot stone for the single point.
“I missed my first one badly and the angles were set up pretty good,” Jones said. “We weren’t sure if we were going to make it for one, but it wasn’t looking very good.
“It was a huge momentum change in that game. We knew when we made that one we had control.”
Canada and Germany’s Andrea Schopp were the only undefeated teams heading into the evening draw at 2-0.
Defending champion Binyu Wang of China lost 8-3 to Denmark’s Angelina Jensen to fall to 0-2. The Chinese won the bronze medal at last month’s Olympic Games and are battling post-Olympic fatigue.
Erika Brown of the United States suffered her first loss of the tournament and fell 7-6 to Latvia’s Iveta Stasa Starsune. The Americans were 2-1 alongside Russia, who have regular third Ana Sidorova calling shots in the house instead of skip Liudmila Privivkova.
Norway, Denmark, Sweden’s Cecilia Ostlund and Scotland’s Eve Muirhead were tied at 1-1. Japan’s Moe Meguro and Latvia were 1-2 with China and Switzerland winless.
Falls are common in curling and because the sweepers apply so much pressure to their brooms, spills can be painful when they do go down.
“I have seen some blood come one time. No blood today, which is always good,” Jones said. “I gave myself a black eye a long time ago. 1994.”