The Canadian team has embraced the grind of an unforgiving schedule at the world women’s curling championship. The wins keep on coming no matter when the Ottawa-based foursome is playing.
Rachel Homan skipped the host side to a 7-2 victory over Japan’s Miyu Ueno on Wednesday morning to remain unbeaten at 7-0.
It was a quick turnaround after a victory over Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni a night earlier. That result, which came after an extra-end win over Italy’s Stefania Constantini earlier in the day, ended a 42-game win streak at this event for the four-time defending champion.
“It was a big day, probably too much caffeine,” Homan said. “It was a ton of fun.”
Returning to Centre 200 to face a young Japanese side skipped by the 2022 world junior champion, the Canadian team of Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes took a few ends to adjust to the straighter ice on their sheet.
Rachel Homan leads Canada to 7-0 with a convincing win over Japan
4 hours ago
Duration 3:14
Team Canada maintains their perfect record of 7-0 with a 7-2 defeat of Miya Ueno’s Japan rink at the women’s world curling championship in Sydney N.S.
A defensive battle ensued with Canada breaking things open with three points in the eighth end. Miskew helped set things up by leaving two stones under partial cover to pressure the Japanese side.
Ueno tried a cross-house double but left her stone exposed. Homan made the hit and the teams shook hands after the Canadians stole a point in the ninth end.
“We felt like we were just here last night and then right back at it this morning,” Miskew said. “Sometimes those games are tough to get up for but we stayed patient and made sure that we scored in the right ends.”
The Canadians were scheduled to put their 23-game winning streak on the line in the evening against Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz.
In other early games, Constantini edged South Korea’s Eunji Gim 10-9, Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg doubled American Tabitha Peterson 10-5 and Norway’s Marianne Roervik topped New Zealand’s Jessica Smith 11-4.
Constantini joined defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland in second place at 6-1. South Korea fell into a fourth-place tie with Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont at 5-2.
Sweden was alone in sixth place at 5-3. The top six teams at the end of round-robin play Friday will advance to the playoffs.
Unforgiving schedule
The Canada-Turkey game will cap the second of three straight days where Homan’s side will play in the morning and at night. A long-awaited sleep-in comes Friday but will be followed by back-to-back games that afternoon and evening.
Playoff teams that don’t crack the top two could face another two-game day Saturday ahead of the medal games on Sunday. The possibility of a taxing 15-game schedule over a nine-day stretch is a possibility.
“It’s not the easiest, it is a little bit fatiguing,” Miskew said. “It’s also fatiguing to play back-to-back games. When there’s 13 teams at an event of this length, there’s going to be either back-to-back or night-morning. We just happen to have night-morning three times, which is more than we’re used to.
“So we’re just trying to make sure we maximize our rest during the day between games and recover as much as we can.”
The competition started less than three weeks after the team ran the table at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, an 18-team event that’s one day longer but has an eight-game round-robin with its two-pool format.
“They usually balance it out so that if you play at night, you don’t play the next morning,” Miskew said of the nationals. “There’s not a lot of back-to-backs. But here it’s just a mix of everything.
“It’s just something that we’re not typically used to. But we’re thrown into it and getting used to it as we go.”
Seeking Canada’s 1st title in 6 years
At the world championship, each team plays a full 12-game round-robin schedule.
“I try not to think about the length of the week too much, the number of games, because then it can feel overwhelming,” Wilkes said. “So [we’re] just focusing on what’s important right now and what we can do to get ready for our next game.”
Entering the Wednesday afternoon draw, Norway was just under the playoff cutline at 3-4. The U.S., Japan and Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison were next at 2-5.
Canada’s last women’s world title came in 2018 when Jennifer Jones was victorious in North Bay, Ont. Homan won gold in her last world championship appearance in 2017 at Beijing.
Muyres, Walker rolling at mixed doubles nationals
Meanwhile, Kirk Muyres and Laura Walker held on for an 8-7 win over Andrea Kelly and Tyler Tardi to remain unbeaten at the Canadian mixed curling championship in Fredericton.
Muyres and Walker improved to 6-0 in Pool A while Kelly and Tardi fell to 4-2.
Muyres and Walker scored five in the fifth end for a 7-3 advantage. But Kelly and Tardi made it close with two in the sixth and eighth, respectively.
In other action, Nancy Martin/Steve Laycock defeated Marlee Power/Luke Saunders 7-6, Laurie St-Georges/Felix Asselin edged Madison and Rylan Kleiter 5-4, Chaelyn Kitz/Brayden Stewart dispatched Audrey Laplante/Jasmin Gibeau 9-4 while Jim and Jaelyn Cotter got past Aaron and Amanda Sluchinski 7-3.
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
—
Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform, formerly known as Twitter
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
-scaled.jpg)
