Team Kim take silver at World Curling Championship

More

Published: 29 Mar. 2022, 14:20

Team Kim take silver at World Curling Championship

Korea skip Kim Eun-jung slides a stone against Switzerland in the gold medal game during the World Women's Curling Championship in Prince George, British Columbia on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

From left to right: Kim Kyeong-ae, skip Kim Eun-jung, second Kim Cho-hi and lead Kim Seon-yeong celebrate after defeating Canada during the World Women's Curling Championship in Prince George, British Columbia on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

The Korean women's curling team took silver at the 2022 World Women's Curling Championship at the CN Center in Prince George, Canada on Sunday after losing 7-6 to Switzerland in the gold medal match.

The second-place finish is the best result Korea has ever seen at the world championships. Korea's previous best result was a third-place finish in 2019, when skip Kim Min-ji led the mixed doubles team and the mixed foursome team to the bronze medal.

This time around, Korea's Team Kim won nine round robin matches and lost three before beating the host country 9-6 in the semifinals to advance to the finals.

On Sunday, skip Kim Eun-jung, lead Kim Seon-yeong, second Kim Cho-hi, third Kim Kyeong-ae and alternate Kim Yeong-mi came on the ice vying for the gold medal against Switzerland.

Team Kim had a difficult start in the final match, conceding three points in the second end. Korea was able to catch up by the seventh end, scoring two points in the fifth and two more in the seventh to tie the score at 5-5.

Switzerland pulled ahead with one more point in the eighth and Korea tied the score again in the ninth, only for Switzerland to score one more in the tenth to finish the match 7-6 and take the gold medal.

Switzerland won all their matches during the World Championship, marking their third consecutive World Championship gold medal.

"We trailed three points behind the opponent in the start of the match but we were still able to level the score," skip Kim Eun-jung said after the game. "I am proud that Korea was able to put on such a performance on the world stage."

Lead Kim Seon-yeong, left, and third Kim Kyeong-ae sweep in front of a stone entering the house during a game against Canada at the World Women's Curling Championship in Prince George, British Columbia on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Korean lead Kim Seon-yeong, right, fist bumps Switzerland's Melanie Barbezat as the two teams are announced prior to the gold medal game during the World Women's Curling Championship in Prince George, British Columbia, on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

Switzerland is a strong team and finished fourth at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. That Korea was able to put together such a close game against a team that beat them 8-4 in Beijing is still an impressive achievement.

This silver medal comes as some consolation for Team Kim, after missing out on a chance to advance to the semifinals of the women's curling tournament at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, losing their final game of the round robin tournament to Sweden.

Going into the Games, expectations were high for Team Kim as they had won one silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. At Beijing, they had to end their Olympic journey without repeating that success. They had four wins and five losses across the nine-game round robin tournament and failed to advance to the semifinals.

After starting their Games with a loss to Canada, Team Kim rallied to beat Great Britain and the ROC before losing to China and the United States.

Korea once again rallied with a big win over Japan, before losing to Switzerland, beating Denmark and losing to Sweden.

Across all nine games, Team Kim had appeared better against stronger teams, with their losses to the lower-ranked United States and China ultimately costing them the tournament.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]