20 April 2025
Sunday morning brought two exciting semi-finals at the World Junior Curling Championships 2025 which saw Korea and Germany secure their place in the women’s gold medal game.
Sweden and Canada will play for the bronze. Both games will take place on Monday, 21 April at 10:00.
Canada v Germany
In the first end, Germany’s fourth player Kim Sutor had the chance to put the first points on the board, but an attempt to takeout Canada’s stone lying on the 12-foot was too wide, resulting in Canada stealing the first point.
Team Canada © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
Germany set to redeem themselves, and in the second end Sutor played a takeout to remove their opponents stone and score one point to level the field.
In the third end, Canada had tactically ensured the centre of the house was clear for their final stone, and skip Allyson MacNutt played a draw to score one and take the 2-1 lead.
The first two-point score came in the fourth end when Sutor could play a take-out and score two.
After a blanked fifth end, Canada’s MacNutt tried to play a raise double in the sixth end but was unsuccessful, resulting in Germany stealing one point and extending their lead to 4-2.
Germany’s Joy Sutor © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
Germany stole another point in the seventh end after a second raise double didn’t go to plan for MacNutt.
However after an unlucky spell by the Germans, Canada scored three points in the eighth end with an open hit to level the score 5-5.
In the ninth end, Germany had hammer and Canada knew their only chance to score would be to draw and bury their stone behind their opponents. But the angle and weight wasn’t quite right, allowing Germany to play a takeout to score one and have a single point lead going into the tenth end.
In the final end, Canada had hammer and a chance to score one to force an extra end. However, MacNutt’s draw attempt was heavy, and Germany stole two points to win 8-5 and confirm their place in the gold medal final.
German celebrations © World Curling / Céline Stucki
After confirming their gold medal game spot, Germany’s second player Joy Sutor said, “Being in the finals is a great feeling! Since it was tense until the very end, I was so nervous that my hands were shaking.
“Now we are facing Korea, which was a tough opponent in the round robin. We expect the final game to be just as challenging, but in the end, we just want to have fun during the match, because that’s what really matters.”
Korea v Sweden
Sweden got off to a flying start when they took a three point lead in the first end. With her last throw, Korea skip Kang Bobae attempted to draw, but it was too light. Sweden’s skip Moa Dryburgh went on to play a successful draw and score the three.
Sweden © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
In the second end, Korea immediately recovered when they scored three and levelled the score. Moa Dryburgh’s hit-and-roll with her final stone didn’t go to plan, taking out one of their own stones and setting up Korea’s chance to score three. Kang then played a perfect draw, securing those three.
Korea went on to steal two further points, one in the third end and one in the fourth, to bring their lead to 5-3.
The fifth end saw Sweden level the score to 5-5. Sweden had set up great stone placement on each side of the house, forcing Korea to be able to only remove one. This allowed Dryburgh to play a draw and claim a further two points.
The sixth end and seventh ends were blanked and in the eighth, a draw for two was attempted by Korea. The weight seemed good and the sweepers worked hard to guide Kang’s final stone through the guards, however a Swedish stone was just an inch closer to the button, meaning Korea would only score one.
Sweden levelled the score once again in the ninth end. They already had a stone on the button but wanted to nudge a second that was laying in the eight-foot. But, the weight of Moa Dryburgh’s stone was too light and didn’t raise their target stone enough, settling for a single.
Sweden versus Korea © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
It was all to play for going into the tenth end, but Korea had hammer and the last word. Korea gave Sweden no choice but to takeout the lone Korean stone on the button and leave their stone wide open, allowing Korea to also play a takeout and score one point to win and claim their spot in the gold medal game.
Kim Jisoo © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
Following their 7-6 win, Korea skip Kang Bobae said, “We are so happy about this win. Since it was the play-off for the final, it was definitely an important game for us. Winning it has boosted our confidence.
“When we first faced Germany in the round robin, we lost, but we are confident that it’s still possible for us to finish the final game with a good result.”
Click here for all the results, standings and the playing schedule.
For information about streaming, click here.
All times are Central European Summer Time which is UTC (+2)
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