CALGARY — Sergey Glukhov’s team continues to be the surprise of the men’s world curling championship in Calgary.
The Russian Curling Federation, or RCF, topped the table with a 10-2 record Thursday following a 9-2 thumping of Scotland’s Bruce Mouat.
Glukhov’s team is called RCF because of World Anti-Doping Agency sanctions against Russia.
Glukhov skipped his country to a 4-8 record at the 2019 world championship in Lethbridge.
RCF and Sweden (9-2) were two countries out of the 14 with playoff berths secured heading into Thursday evening’s draw, when Canada’s Brendan Bottcher faced Norway in a battle of 7-4 teams.
John Shuster of the United States got to an 8-3 record with an 8-3 win over Denmark.
The Scots dropped to 8-4 and Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz remained in contention at 6-5.
In other games, China edged Japan 6-5.
The top two finishers in the round-robin earn byes to Saturday’s semifinals.
Teams third through sixth in the standings will compete in qualification games with winners to reach the final four. Medal games are Sunday.
The top six teams also qualify their countries for men’s curling in the 2022 Winter Olympics. The rest of the Olympic field will be determined in a December qualifier.
No spectators are allowed in WinSport’s Markin MacPhail Centre, which was also the case at the recent Canadian men’s, women’s and mixed doubles championships.
Two Grand Slams will also be held in Calgary later this month before the women’s world championship April 30 to May 6.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2021.
The Canadian Press