Skip Silvana Tirinzoni’s CC Aarau will play in the final of the world championships in Prince George (Canada). She could write history.
© AFP
Alina Pätz made the difference in the eighth end.
Switzerland can dream of a third consecutive title at the world women’s curling championships, which are being played this year in Prince George (Canada). Last night, the CC Aarau team beat Sweden 7-5 in the semi-finals. They will face South Korea in the final next night (1 a.m. Swiss time).
Undefeated in the twelve qualifying matches, Switzerland had already beaten Sweden in the round-robin (8-7). She was seriously hooked by the team that had taken away all hope of a medal at the last Beijing Games. Thus, Sweden was still leading 5-4 after 7 ends. But Alina Pätz played a perfect stone in the eighth end to make a deuce and allow Switzerland to take the lead (6-5).
The Swiss then resisted in the ninth end, before benefiting from a little help from fate in the last end: the Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg indeed missed her last rock, allowing the Swiss to score a seventh and last point rather than having to play an extra end.
Faced with South Korea, who beat Canada in the semi-finals (9-6), Silvana Tirinzoni and her teammates can therefore dream of a historic third consecutive world title. In the round robin, Switzerland won 8-5 against the Korean team.
“Everything really comes down to a few millimeters in these kinds of matches, reacted Tirnzoni. But Alina had two great rocks in the eighth end. She couldn’t have done better. You have to fight on every rock in such a tight match, and that’s what made the difference.”