Lawes Wraps Up Playoff Berth At World Juniors

13/03/2009 05:50

VANCOUVER - Canada's Kaitlyn Lawes clinched a playoff berth at the world junior curling championships with an 8-2 win over Switzerland's Martina Baumann on Wednesday.

Lawes took three points in the fifth end and stole a pair in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

Lawes is in a four-way tie for first place at 6-2 with Switzerland, Russia and Scotland. With the next best team, the United States, at 4-4, the four leaders have already clinched playoff berths. All that remains it to sort out the placement of the top four.

"We're top two for sure," said Winnipeg's Lawes. "All that matters now is the placement".

"We've beaten the teams with the same record as us, so we would get first (place) if we win our last one."

Canada's final match is Thursday afternoon.

Russia's Margarita Fomina clinched a playoff berth with 9-3 thrashing of American skip Alexandra Carlson.

Scotland's Eve Muirhead, the defending champion was idle.

In the other Wednesday morning matchup, Sweden defeated Denmark 6-2. Sweden's Anna Hasselborg is now 3-5, tied with France's Marie Coulot, while Danish skip Mette de Neergaard is now 2-6.

Anna Kubeskova of the Czech Republic is 2-5 while Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa is at 1-6.

In men's action, Sweden's Oskar Eriksson edged Scotland's Graeme Black 6-5 on Wednesday to move a step closer to a playoff berth at the world junior curling championships.

The Swedes improved to 5-3, a game behind Denmark and the defending champion United States (both 5-2) and a step ahead of 4-4 Norway.

In other games, Switzerland's Roger Meier beat Russia's Andrey Drozdov 8-7 on a measurement while Germany's Konstantin Kaempf earned his first win, an 8-4 whipping of China's Jialiang Zang.

The Swiss are 3-4, China and Scotland are 3-5, Russia is 2-5 and Germany is 1-7.

Canada's Brett Gallant (7-1) was idle. Gallant's Charlottetown rink is the only team to have clinched a playoff spot.

The tournament is being held at the Vancouver Olympic Centre, host of the 2010 Olympic curling and Paralympic Wheelchair curling competitions.

SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:

Well, it’s still looking very good for both Canadian teams, Brett Gallant and Kaitlyn Lawes, at this year’s World Junior Curling Championships, folks.