(Photo by Emily Rogers)
Canada’s Team Rachel Homan is heading into the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships semifinals with a perfect record.
Thursday (Oct. 31) afternoon’s 8-6 win over Team Miyu Ueno of Japan at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex qualified Team Homan for the 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship in South Korea, and earned a playoff berth.
To secure the win, Homan made a crucial double takeout with her last shot of the game, removing two Japanese stones surrounding the button.
Canada was in position at the end, due to a sublime sweep from second Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes in the fifth end that barelydragged Homan’s final shot into the eight-foot to sit second shot.
Halfway down the sheet, the stone appeared light, and if it didn’t reach the rings, Japan would have had a draw for four that would have swung Canada’s momentum.
Instead, Ueno settled for two to tie the game 4-4 and leave Canada with the all-important last-rock advantage in the even ends in the back half of the game.
“We’re lucky to have two of the best sweepers on our team, they make a lot of shots for us out there,” said vice-skip Tracy Fleury. “That was a big sweep for sure, and getting it into the eight-foot was critical. We were happy with just giving up two there.”
Miskew knew what was at stake on the shot, leaning into the scrub a little harder.
“I mean, that’s why we’re there,” she said. “I think that as a player on the team, having the confidence to throw a little light and give it to us is what we want. Throwing heavy is tough; we don’t want to watch them. We want to be working out there. And Rachel knowing that she can be a little on the light side and that we’ll get it there for her is something that motivates us to work just as hard as we do.”
Canada took the lead with two in the sixth, and Japan never got closer, taking singles in the seventh and ninth ends, before Homan delivered her game-winning double in the 10th.
“It’s nice to have some momentum heading into the playoffs,” said Fleury. “We always like starting the game with hammer, so that’s good, and we feel like we have a good handle on the rocks, so we’re going to pick a good set and we’re going to come out strong tomorrow.”
Now Homan, Fleury, Miskew, Wilkes, alternate Rachel Brown and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renee Sonnenberg are working to earn a first gold medal for a Canadian women’s team at the Pan Continental Championships.
Team Homan is set to play in the semifinals on Nov. 1 at 9 a.m. against China’s Team Rui Wang for the right to play for gold on Saturday.
Canada has last-rock advantage and choice of stones for the entirety of the playoffs by virtue of its perfect round-robin record.
“Having hammer and rocks in a field like this with the level of competition that we’re going to be facing tomorrow is definitely what we wanted,” said second Emma Miskew. “So we're pretty pumped to have both rock selection and hammer. That is basically what we were playing for today.”
With round-robin play completed, Canada, Japan, China and the United States, will join hosts South Korea at the 2025 LGT World Women’s Championship next March.
In the men’s competition, Canada’s Team Brad Gushue is set to play Japan’s Team Shinya Abe in one semifinal tonight (Oct. 31) at 7 p.m.
Sign up to get the latest local news headlines delivered directly to your inbox every afternoon.
Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@centralalbertaonline.com.
CentralAlbertaOnline encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the CentralAlbertaOnline app.