Lawes advances to world junior final

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This article was published 14/03/2009 (6231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — Canada will have two rinks playing for gold medals in Sunday’s final of the world junior curling championships.
Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg stole two in the first end, then drew for three in the third to defeat Martina Baumann of Switzerland 9-3 ineight ends in the women’s semifinal Saturday night.
Earlier in the day, a big steal put Brett Gallant of Charlottetown into the men’s final.
Lawes and her rink of third Jenna Loder, second Laryssa Grenkow and lead Breanne Meakin will play defending champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland for the gold.
Gallant overcame a shaky start and stole six points in the sixth end to defeat Rasmus Stjerne of Denmark 11-5 in eight ends in the 1-versus-2 match of the Page playoff system.
“I don’t think I’ve ever stolen six before,” said Gallant, 19, a first-year business student at the University of Prince Edward Island. “It just turned out that way. They missed a couple of shots and we made a few.
“That really turned the game around. It was a really tight game until then and they had controlled most of it. We were a little fortunate.”
Baumann will play Margarita Fomina of Russia for the women’s bronze medal.
Muirhead will leave Vancouver after the final and travel to Gangneung, Korea, where she will skip Scotland’s senior team at the world women’s curling championship.
Late in the win over Switzerland, Canadian alternate Kalynn Park replaced Grenkow. Park is the daughter of Kevin Park, the third for Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton who will play Alberta’s Kevin Martin in Sunday’s Brier final.
The last time Canadian rinks won both the men’s and women’s junior championship was Marliese Miller and Steve Laycock, both of Saskatoon, in 2003.
Lawes, a human nutritional sciences student at the University of Manitoba, took advantage of some Swiss misses to advance to the final.
Third Marisa Winkelhausen, who throws final stones for Switzerland, was light on a last-rock draw in the opening end to give Canada the deuce. In the second, Switzerland was forced to take a point when Winkelhausen’s last rock stayed in the house on a takeout.
Lawes, a bronze medallist at last year’s championship, came up big in the fourth, cooly executing a draw for the three points.
Reaching the men’s final means Gallant and his rink of third Adam Casey, second Anson Carmody and lead Jamie Danbrook have almost completed the journey they mapped out for themselves.
“It’s been our goal all year long,” said Gallant. “We wanted to win the world championship.
“We’ve made every step so far. Just one more game to go.”
Canada held a slim 4-3 lead over Stjerne after five ends. In the sixth, with the house full of Canadian stones, Stjerne tried to raise one of his own rocks into scoring position. His shot wrecked in front of the house and Canada took a commanding 10-3 lead.
Up to that point the game could have gone either way.
“They played really well out of the gate,” said Gallant. “We were just missing shots by a foot or two.
“They didn’t miss a shot the first five ends. There is definitely room for improvement.”
.Lawes defeated Russia 4-3 in Friday night’s 3-versus-4 playoff game.
Baumann, who topped the round-robin standings with a 7-2 record, lost 7-4 to Scotland in Friday’s 1-versus-2 playoff game.
The Canadian men finished the round-robin atop the standings with an 8-1 record, followed by Denmark (7-2), Sweden (6-3) and the U.S. (6-3).
This is the first time Gallant’s team has played at the world juniors but it has appeared in five Canadian championships. The squad was third last year and lost the 2007 final to Charley Thomas of Didsbury, Alta., who went on to win his second consecutive world title.
A Canadian men’s rink has won the world juniors nine of the last 11 years.
Miller was the last Canadian woman to win the world junior title.
A small crowd watched the action in the 2,000-seat Vancouver Olympic Centre. The afternoon draw was made noisy by a group of American and Swedish fans who stomped, clapped and cheered. The Swedes had the advantage of being able to chant encouragement in both English and Swedish.
The championships are being held in the same building that will host curling during the 2010 Winter Games. The world juniors are the first able-bodied competition at the venue.
Canada’s Jim Armstrong of Richmond, B.C., won the world wheelchair curling championships held in the building earlier this month.