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Korea beats top-ranked Canada at women's curling world championship

Published: 19 Mar. 2025, 14:50 Updated: 19 Mar. 2025, 17:36

Korea's Gim Eun-ji, left, follows the stone during an LGT World Women's Curling Championship match against Canada at Uijeongbu Indoor Ice Rink in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi on March 19. [YONHAP]

Host country Korea defeated world No. 1 Canada at the women's curling world championship on Wednesday.

Skip Gim Eun-ji and her 10th-ranked Korean crew beat Rachel Homan's Canada 11-7 in their round-robin match at the LGT World Women's Curling Championship at Uijeongbu Indoor Ice Rink in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi.

Korea improved to 6-1 in the round robin, good for second place. It won the first five matches before losing to Switzerland (7-0) Tuesday and then returning to its winning ways against Canada, now in third place at 5-2.

Korea will take on Denmark (4-3) later Wednesday.

The 13 teams in the competition will play each other once in the round robin and the top six will qualify for the playoff round. The two best teams will each receive a bye to the semifinals, and the remaining four teams will compete for the last two semifinal berths.

The qualification matches and the semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, followed by the bronze medal contest and the championship final on Sunday.

Korea is seeking its first gold at the women's curling world championship. It won silver in 2022, and bronze in 2019 and 2024.

Korea and Canada were tied at 3-3 after five ends, and Gim scored three with the hammer in the sixth end for a 6-3 Korean lead.

Canada got one point back in the next end, but Korea scored a deuce to go up 8-4.

Homan's double takeout trimmed the Korean lead to 8-7, but Gim locked down the victory with three points in the 10th end.

The teams battled at a high level, with Korea shooting 94 percent and Canada checking in at 90 percent. Gim outplayed Homan, a two-time world champion, with her 94 percent efficiency, 15 percentage points better than the Canadian.

Korea's Kim Su-ji, center, releases the stone during an LGT World Women's Curling Championship match against Canada at Uijeongbu Indoor Ice Rink in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi on March 19. [YONHAP]

At this world championship, Korea is also trying to secure a spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. The top seven teams in points earned from the 2024 and 2025 world championships will book their spots in Milan, and Korea is in a good position after collecting 11 points with its bronze medal at last year's world championship.

Kim Min-ji, vice-skip for Korea, said the key to the win was to stay confident and not feel intimidated by Homan.

The current Korean team had been 2-8 against Homan's team before Wednesday and had lost three straight matches.

"We didn't have lopsided losses against Homan's teams in the past," Kim said. "We felt we would have a chance to win if we kept things close for a few ends."

Kim, 25, said she was inspired by Homan and another Canadian star, Jennifer Jones, to pick up curling some 15 years ago.

"They've been my role models my whole career," Kim said. "I've done this long enough that I am no longer star-struck when I face Homan. But I could still feel her presence today. She is just a fearless curler."

Yonhap