Rachel Homan and her Canadian teammates celebrated after a close 6-5 win over China's Wang Rui in the semifinals at the Pan Continental Curling Championship in Lacombe, Alberta. The game went to an extra end, adding to the excitement of their victory. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Rachel Homan and her Canadian curling team are one step away from a gold medal at the Pan Continental Curling Championship. On Friday, Homan led her team to a close 6-5 victory over China’s Wang Rui in a thrilling semifinal match that went to an extra end. The game came to an intense finish as Wang tried a double takeout to remove both Canadian stones but managed to clear only one. This miss handed Canada the win without Homan needing to throw her final stone.
China had a promising chance to win in the 10th end, where they could have scored three points to secure the game. However, Homan’s well-placed freeze forced China to settle for two points, pushing the game to an extra end and giving Canada the advantage. Reflecting on the game, Homan praised her team’s perseverance, saying, "We stuck together. Although we had some missed shots, we played a solid game overall. China played incredibly well, which made even our small mistakes more noticeable."
The Canadian team, led by Homan and featuring vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, and lead Sarah Wilkes, will face defending champions South Korea in Saturday's final. Earlier in the tournament, Canada defeated South Korea's Eunji Gim with a decisive 8-2 win in the round-robin stage. However, Homan knows the final won’t be easy, acknowledging that South Korea will likely play at a much higher level than in their previous encounter. "We're expecting a tougher match, similar to what we experienced in the semifinals," Homan remarked.
Canada’s Brad Gushue faced a tough loss in the men's division in the bronze-medal game against American John Shuster. Despite a strong start, Gushue and his team fell 10-8, marking the first time the Canadian men’s team hasn’t reached the podium in this event. It was a significant victory for Shuster, as it marked his first win over Gushue since 2019.
Gushue, a two-time gold medalist at this championship, previously lost to Japan’s Shinya Abe in the semifinals with an 8-4 score. Abe will now compete for gold against China’s Xiaoming Xu. Gushue reflected on his bronze-medal loss: "Today’s loss feels better than yesterday’s because we played well and threw some good rocks. The Americans performed well and deserved the win."
Throughout the bronze-medal game, Canada stayed competitive, narrowing the score to 9-8 by the ninth end. Despite their efforts to set up a potential steal in the 10th end, the Americans successfully executed a draw to secure the win.
Despite the disappointing outcome, the Canadians had a strong round-robin performance, going 7-0 and leading the qualifiers. New addition Brendan Bottcher, playing as second, highlighted the positives of their debut event together. "This was a solid start for our new team. We have areas to improve on, but our team chemistry and performance this week were great. We’re excited about future competitions," Bottcher said.
