Canada beats Japan at world women’s curling championship

SYDNEY, N.S. –

Canada’s Rachel Homan defeated Japan’s Miyu Ueno 7-2 on Wednesday morning to remain unbeaten at the world women’s curling championship.

Homan and her team of Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes scored three in the eighth end en route to their seventh straight round-robin victory. The Ottawa-based foursome has won 23 games in a row overall.

Canada will next play Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz in the evening draw at Centre 200.

In other early games, Italy’s Stefania Constantini edged South Korea’s Eunji Gim 10-9 and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg doubled American Tabitha Peterson 10-5.

Norway’s Marianne Roervik scored five points in the seventh end of an 11-4 rout of New Zealand’s Jessica Smith.

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 weekend playoffs.

Norway was under the 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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2023.