DUMFRIES, Scotland – Hungary, Spain, Austria and Czech Republic are through to the quarter-finals after winning their qualification games on Tuesday afternoon in the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2014 currently being held in the Dumfries Ice Bowl in Scotland.
They join Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and Russia who had already qualified automatically for the quarter-finals after finishing in first place in the standings in each of the four groups.
Russia beat Korea 8-5 in their last round-robin game on Tuesday morning’s first session of play to maintain their unbeaten record at the top of the A Group.
In other games in this session, Scotland beat Estonia by 10-4; Wales were 7-2 winners over Belarus; Austria defeated Denmark by 7-4 and Italy had an 8-2 victory over England.
Later, in the concluding session of round-robin play, Sweden kept their B Group unbeaten record intact with an 8-6 win over Kazakhstan, while Slovenia beat Brazil by 11-4 and Canada were 7-3 winners over Finland.
The four Group winners – Russia in A Group, Sweden B Group, Switzerland C Group and Norway D Group moved directly into the quarter-finals to be played on Tuesday evening at 20:00 (local time – BST).
The second and third placed teams in each group went on to play a round of qualification games for the right to join the group leaders in those quarter-finals.
In these games, defending champions Hungary beat Scotland by 7-5 and now go on to face Norway in the quarter-finals while Spain, who beat Australia by 7-6, will face Russia.
Austria were 7-6 victors over Canada to now face Switzerland in the quarter-finals and the Czech Republic beat China by 6-5 to complete the quarter-final line-up, where they will face Sweden.
They said it:
Zsolt Kiss – Hungary (after 7-5 win against Scotland): “It feels really good to reach the quarter-finals because we beat a really good team. I think both teams were playing really good today – we know the Scottish team really well and they had the home environment (in their favour). I think we missed a few shots today and I know we can play better against the Norwegian team.”
Sergio Vez – Spain (after their 7-6 win against Australia): “We were in control of the game for the first half, then we made a bad team decision. We were lying one and decided to peal one of their stones and ended up giving up three (points). Then our confidence went down and they started getting their weight, so we struggled for a couple of ends. If it had been a ten end game we may have lost, but that’s Mixed Doubles and we made it.
“We played quarter-finals in 2010 in Russia and came fourth. Never the less I think it’s a much higher standard of competition than four years ago so that’s a good result for us. All the countries are taking it much more seriously now knowing that in 2018 it may be an Olympic discipline. All the teams are much better than four years ago.”
Claudia Fischer – Austria (after their 7-4 win against Denmark): “We feel good – that was our goal. We knew it would be tough this year with Russia and Hungary in the group. All the other teams played really well and it took us a few games to get into the championship and get a feel for the ice because we haven’t been able to train together, but we still made it.
“I think the standard has never been as strong as this year. Every game is tough to play – there was never an easy opponent. I think anyone can be beaten by anyone on a good day.”
STANDINGS (after round-robin)
A Group:
1. Russia 8-0 (Qualified for quarter-finals) 2. Hungary 7-1 (Qualified for quarter-finals. Defeated Scotland in qualification game) 3. Austria 5-3 (Qualified for quarter-finals. Defeated Canada in qualification game) 4. Korea 5-3 5. Wales 4-4 6. Italy 3-5 7. Denmark 2-6 8. Belarus 1-7 9. England 1-7
B Group:
1. Sweden 8-0 (Qualified for quarter-finals) 2. Canada 7-1 (Lost quarter-final qualification game to Austria) 3. Scotland 6-2 (Lost quarter-final qualification game to Hungary) 4. Finland 4-4 5. Latvia 3-5 6. Estonia 3-5 7. Kazakhstan 2-6 8. Slovenia 2-6 9. Brazil 1-7
C Group:
1. Switzerland 6-1 (Qualified for quarter-finals) 2. Czech Republic 6-1 (Qualified for quarter-finals. Defeated China in qualification game) 3. Australia 5-3 (Lost quarter-final qualification game to Spain) 4. Poland 4-3 5. Japan 3-4 6. Romania 2-5 7. Netherlands 2-5 8. Slovakia 0-7
D Group:
1. Norway 7-0 (Qualified for quarter-finals) 2. Spain 5-2 (Qualified for quarter-finals. Defeated Australia in qualification game) 3. China 5-2 (Lost quarter-final qualification game to Czech Republic) 4. France 4-3 5. USA 3-4 6. New Zealand 2-5 7. Ireland 1-6 8. Germany 1-6
Schedule:
Tuesday 29 April, 2014
Quarter-finals (20:00 all times BST)
Norway v Hungary
Switzerland v Austria
Sweden v Czech Republic
Russia v Spain
Wednesday 30 April, 2014
Semi-finals (10:15)
Medal Games (15:30)
Results, statistics, live video streams, news and photos from the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2014 can be seen here on the World Curling Federation’s official event website: http://bit.ly/wmdcc2014
More athlete quotes are available here: http://bit.ly/wmdcc2014day6quotes
Curling fans around the world will also be able to see a number of live games and selected highlights from the 2014 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship via the World Curling Federation’s YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV
You can see the full webcast schedule here: http://bit.ly/wmdcc2014schedule
At the same time as staging the World Mixed Doubles Championship, the Dumfries Ice Bowl will also act as host to the Men’s and Women’s World Senior Curling Championships. More information about that event can be found here: http://bit.ly/wscc2014
