Canada’s Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing are through to the semifinals of the world mixed doubles curling championship after securing first place in their pool on Thursday. The Canadian duo defeated South Korea 7-6 to finish the round-robin stage with an 8-1 record. They were also helped by the Netherlands upsetting Estonia 8-6, which ensured Canada finished ahead of their Estonian rivals on the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Jones said, “That kind of came out of nowhere. We just wanted to finish the round robin off strong, and obviously with a win, and we were quite content with second place. First place is just an added bonus.”
Canada will face the winner of the qualifying game between Scotland’s Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat or Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin of the United States in the semifinal. Japan’s Chiaki Matsumura and Yasumasa Tanida won the other pool and will play the winner of the early game between Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill or Martine Roenning and Mathias Braenden of Norway. The gold medal game will be played on Saturday.
Laing expressed excitement, saying, “Playoff time is always fun; well, the whole week has been fun. I mean, you look around and you see all the other countries’ names, that’s always a good sign. World championships are hard to get to. So it’s been great. Two more wins would make it extra special. We’ll do everything we can to do that, but we’ll see where it goes.”