Brad Jacobs from Canada maintained an unbeaten record and secured a spot in the semifinals of the Pan Continental Curling Championships by defeating Hugh Millikin from Australia with a score of 8-2 on Thursday.
This victory also guaranteed a spot for a Canadian team at the upcoming world men’s curling championship scheduled from March 27 to April 4 in Ogden, Utah.
Jacobs and his team from Calgary took an early lead with two points each in the first and third ends, establishing a 4-1 advantage. Subsequently, Jacobs’ team managed to steal one point in the fourth end and three more in the fifth end. The game concluded after the Australians scored only one point in the sixth end.
Jacobs, who currently holds a 5-0 record, is set to finish the round-robin stage on Friday, facing off against Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi from Japan (4-1) and John Shuster from the United States (5-0).
In the women’s event earlier on Thursday, Rachel Homan from Canada staged a comeback after falling behind early to secure an 11-9 victory over South Korea’s Eunji Gim.
Gim took an early lead of 4-1 by scoring four points in the second end against Homan, the reigning tournament champion.
However, Homan’s team from Ottawa quickly turned the tables, outscoring Gim 6-1 in the following four ends and taking the lead by stealing two points in the sixth end.
Although South Korea regained the lead at 8-7 with three points in the seventh end, Homan responded strongly by scoring three points in the eighth end, securing a three-point lead going into the final end with another steal of one point in the ninth.
Later in the day, Homan narrowly lost 7-6 to Rui Wang from China.
As a result, Canada’s overall standing dropped to 3-2 while China maintained a flawless record of 5-0.
The round-robin matches for both the men’s and women’s categories will continue on Friday.