China’s rink on top of worlds

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/03/2009 (6344 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — A decade ago, the thought that a team from China could claim a world curling championship seemed preposterous.

Sunday, playing as close to home soil as possible, that once-outrageous idea became reality, and you can take it as an ironclad fact that Bingyu Wang’s squad from Harbin will be a podium favourite 11 months down the road in Vancouver.

Wang claimed China’s first championship by beating Sweden’s Anette Norberg, a two-time world and 2006 Olympic champion, 8-6 in the gold-medal game of the Mount Titlis world women’s championship at the Gangneung International Ice Rink.

And now the focus turns to Vancouver next February, where China will be a gold-medal favourite.

“I hope so,” said an ecstatic Chinese coach Dan Rafael, a native of Lachine, Que. “Do I believe it? Yes. I think so.”

He won’t be alone. Wang, third Yin Liu, second Qingshuang Yue and lead Yan Zhou, who lost to Canada’s Jennifer Jones in the final of last year’s world championship in Vernon, B.C., were the most consistent team this week, leading the round-robin standings with a 10-1 record — its lone loss was to Jones in the round-robin opener — then beating Denmark’s Angelina Jensen in the Page playoff one versus two game before their historic win over Sweden.

“I think this game was so difficult for us,” said Wang, a 24-year-old student. “We lost the final last year, and we really wanted to get the gold. Everybody worked hard; it was a long week.”

But the ending was oh so sweet.

China put together deuces in fourth, sixth and eighth ends before Wang clinched the victory with a 10th-end double takeout, setting off a wild on-ice celebration with her teammates, and with a surprising number of Chinese fans in the stands here, which were about half full for the final.

“I was a little nervous and a little excited, but I just told myself, ‘one more game. Don’t think too much; just play Sweden’, and we played well,” Wang said.

The Swedes put together two clutch wins in the playoffs — over Canada in the Page three versus four game and Denmark in the semifinal — to reach the final, and despite her storied pedigree, Norberg, 42, admitted the team exceeded expectations.

“We are very satisfied. We had a rough winter at home with a lot of personal problems,” Norberg said.

“We were saying before coming here that if we were top four, that’s OK for now and that’s not our usual goal going into the worlds. And we finished in the final, so we’re happy about that.”

Next year’s Ford world women’s championship is in Swift Current, Sask.

The Ford world men’s championship kicks off next Saturday in Moncton, N.B., where Edmonton’s Kevin Martin will take aim at a second straight world title.

— Canwest News Service