Homan vs Tirinzoni for 2024 title
[With files from World Curling]
For the first time in five years, Canada’s women curlers are back in the world championship final.
Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion Rachel Homan and her Ottawa foursome defeated a tough Korea squad skipped by Un-Chi Gim 9-7 in one Saturday semifinal of the world women’s curling championship at Sydney, N.S.
The victory propelled the Canadians into Sunday’s championship final for the first time since 2018, when Jennifer Jones led her Winnipeg squad to victory in North Bay, Ont.
Canada’s opponents will be the best team in the world dating back to the very next season. 2019 is the year the back-end combo of skip Silvana Tirinzoni and fourth-thrower Alina Pätz first joined forces to win the world crown—and they’ve won every title since that year.
In Sydney, the Swiss subdued a rapidly improving Italian squad skipped by Stefania Constantini by a 6-3 count in their semifinal.
Both semifinals went down to the last stone.
In Canada’s case, Homan scored a deuce in the second end to open the scoring, but Korea’s Gim, who is coached by Canadian Guy Hemmings, responded with a double-takeout in the third end for a 3-2 lead.
By the ninth end, Canada led 6-5 when Gim nudged out a Canadian stone to score two points and take a 7-6 lead.
In the final end, a brilliant double on Homan’s first stone forced Gim to miss a tough draw under full cover, and the Canadian removed the stone to score three points for the 9-7 win.
“I feel on top of the world right now,” said Homan, who has one world crown (2017) in three previous attempts. “I’m so proud of my team for battling, they were phenomenal in front of me.
“It’s just so much fun (playing in front of this crowd). I’ll never forget this week, win or lose.”
The other semifinal was a taut, low-scoring affair that first broke open in the seventh end, when Pätz drew for two points in a busy house for a 4-2 lead.
Leading 4-3 coming home, Pätz made a double on her last stone to score two and clinch the 6-3 victory.
“I’m empty, I don’t know what to say,” said Tirinzoni, who will now hunt for an unprecedented fifth world championship in a row. “It was such an exhausting game, (Italy) played amazing.
“I could not wish for more, to play Canada, in Canada, for my fifth world title? It’s a dream.”
Earlier in the week, Canada wrecked Switzerland’s 42-match win streak at the world championships with an 8-5 victory.
The Swiss went on to lose two round-robin games in total ahead of the playoffs, while the Canadians led the pack with with just one loss—to Korea.
The bronze-medal game between Korea and Italy gets underway at 11:00 a.m. local time with the championship final taking place at 5:00 p.m.