Beijing, China, February 14, 2022: Japan’s women’s curling team took another big step on the road to the semi-finals by defeating China 10-2 in round robin play at the National Aquatics Centre on Monday morning.
Japan, bronze medal-winners at PyeongChang 2018, improved their win-loss record at the Ice Cube to 4-1 in the 10-team tournament, with only the top four advancing to the semi-finals.
This fourth straight victory put them second in the rankings behind Switzerland, who are perfect at 5-0 in the preliminary round. China dropped to 2-4.
Despite their strong position in the rankings, the Japanese curlers are not getting ahead of themselves.
Team member Chinami Yoshida said they did not expect to record such a big win against China.
“We were focusing on ice sweeping and range control. Then finally we scored a lot of points,” she said.
“We haven’t counted our winning and losing. Our goal is to stay in the moment and enjoy each game. We may think about that at the end of the round robin, but now we don’t care about it.”
China led 1-0 after two ends before Japan scored a three-pointer in the third end to open up a two-point gap. Japan extended this advantage to 7-1 after five ends and, from this point, there was no way back for China.
China’s Wang Rui said the team was not thinking too much about the score during the game; they were just trying to focus on the small details of their own play and on their delivery.
However, she said the lack of experience among the Chinese players played its part in the big margin of defeat.
“It had something to do with our performance today,” she said. “We failed to adapt to the ice surface quickly because the young teammates haven’t encountered similar situations before. We did not adjust as quickly as Team Japan.
“I know we didn’t perform well today. We have to handle complicated situations at each delivery.”
In another game on Monday morning, the United States beat PyeongChang 2018 silver medallists Korea 8-6, dropping the Koreans to 2-3 after five games. The Japanese are due to face Korea in another round robin game on Monday evening.
The latest standings, with the win-loss record, is: Switzerland (5-0), Japan (4-1), United States (4-2), Great Britain (3-2), Sweden (3-2), Canada (2-3), Korea (2-3), China (2-4), Denmark (1-4), Russian Olympic Committee (0-5). Note: The top four teams advance to the semi-finals.
Photo: Team Japan/Kyodo News