Homan Brings Canada’s First Curling World Title In Six Years
-
By Noan Gagnon
- —
Summary:
- Canada has won its first curling world title since 2018 at the women’s curling world championship in Sydney.
- Skip Rachel Homan made a split for three points in the ninth end, bringing the 7-5 victory to her team.
- Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni was forced to concede in the 10th.
The Canadian women’s curling team put an end to their six-year medal drought this Sunday after they won gold at the Women’s Curling World Championship in Sydney.
The victory was possible with the help of skip Rachel Homan’s fantastic game-turning split that brought the team three points in the ninth end, forcing Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni to concede in the 10th for a 7-5 victory.
Homan Entered the Final With Confidence
Homan confidently made her way into the final entering the final and her fearless attitude truly paid off as it helped her first world title since 2017.
“I believed in my team and my team believed in me“, said Homan who managed to pull the fantastic three points split and pick up where she and her side of third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, and lead Sarah Wilkes left off against the 13-team field at Centre 200.
While the Canadians defeated South Korea in the semifinal, Switzerland came out with flying colors in the other semifinal against Italy’s Stefania Constantini.
Carole Howald, Selina Witschonke, and Silvana Tirinzoni set up Alina Paetz at fourth. Canada made a few small mistakes early in the game and it was once again forced in the third end.
However, Homan’s final stone undercurled in the fourth, successfully setting up a Swiss hit for two. Nonetheless, this didn’t stop Paetz’s back-to-back throws in the fifth which eventually enabled her team to pull even with a pair.
Riding Out a Storm
Canadian coach Viktor Kjell described the rundown as riding out a storm.
The end of the break brought two blanks and an eighth end with rocks in play. While Fleury made a hit that rolled frozen on the button, Tirinzoni couldn’t blast out the opponents’ stones.
The Canadian made a hit to sit four while Paetz had to draw for one.
The ninth end was critical and saw Homan make two excellent team shots that completely changed the game in front of a crowd of close to 4,400 people.
Homan described it as a “phenomenal team shot to really get a leg up on Switzerland for the first time in the whole game” while Tirinzoni explained that their chance to win “would have been so much higher” if they had made all the shots.
The Swiss team warmly congratulated the winners. Coach Kjell concluded,
It’s going to take a long time before another team in the world can have a season like this
In other news, the 2024 Men’s Curling World Championship will start on Saturday in Schaffhausen, Switzerland where Brad Gushue of St. John’s will be skipping the Canadian team.
