By Aadi Nair
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Rachel Homan’s Canada beat South Korea 10-7 on Thursday to book their spot in the semi-finals of the women’s curling competition at the Winter Olympics, where they will be joined by the United States.
Both teams needed to win to lock in a place in the final four, and Homan delivered a fine performance to seal an Olympic semi-finals spot for the first time in her career.
Canada are two-times world champions and were pre-tournament favourites to win gold, but Homan’s record at the Olympics has been poor. She participated in the past two Games, finishing sixth as skip of the women’s team in 2018 and then once again ending up outside the qualification spots for the semi-finals while competing in the mixed doubles in 2022.
Canada had a poor start to their round-robin campaign with just one win after their opening four games.
“We’ve been in a single elimination tournament. We started off a little bit slow,” Homan said.
“We knew our game. We knew our training. We had belief in each other and just tried to stick with the process… It’s hard playing a single elimination game the entire time, but that’s what the Olympics is. It’s a tough field.
“Everyone’s gunning for you, and you have to bring your best every single time or it’s going to be a loss.”
Tabitha Peterson’s United States, who are hoping to become the first U.S. women’s team to win an Olympic medal, claimed a 7-6 win over Switzerland, who had already sealed their spot in the semi-finals.
The game went into an extra end and Switzerland set up two stones in the house, but Peterson made a difficult draw with her last shot to snatch the win.
Asked about the final shot, the team’s second Tara Peterson said: “We just told her the speed… You give Tab a draw, she’s going to make it, so we were very happy to have that opportunity.”
The United States face Switzerland once again in the semi-finals on Friday, while round-robin leaders Sweden take on fourth-placed Canada.
Sophie Jackson’s Britain beat hosts Italy 7-4 to finish sixth.
Britain were defending champions, though Jennifer Dodds was the only curler left from the gold-winning lineup in Beijing, with previous skip Eve Muirhead retiring soon after that victory.
The final session of women’s round-robin games, as well as the men’s semi-finals later on Thursday, were delayed by 30 minutes after heavy snowfall in Cortina d’Ampezzo caused travel issues.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Hugh Lawson)
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