S. Koreans live up to boast

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This article was published 25/03/2012 (5179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Ji-Sun Kim predicted on Wednesday that, given another opportunity, her South Korean team could beat Heather Nedohin and Team Canada.

Saturday afternoon at the Enmax Centre, the 24-year-old skip both backed up her words and sent Canada crashing out of the Ford World Women’s Curling Championship in stunning fashion.

Standing up twice in the hack to reset when the pro-Canadian crowd started making too much noise, Kim finally settled down enough to throw a clutch short raise to the four-foot to score two for a shocking 4-3 win over Nedohin’s heavily favoured team from Edmonton.

The win sent Kim, vice-skip Mi-Sung Shin, second Seul-Bee Lee and lead Un-Chi Gim into the semifinal against Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott.

Canada on the other hand? Yes, there is the bronze medal to play for this morning, again against the Kim rink, which set up yet another match against Canada by losing 9-6 to Ott. But there will be the issue of doubts, regrets and what-ifs after Nedohin, third Beth Iskiw, second Jessica Mair and lead Laine Peters suffered through a frustrating afternoon of having the game dictated by the defensive mindset of the Koreans.

“I thought the Koreans came out not to play against us,” said Nedohin. “They were extremely defensive right from the get-go. The only entertaining end was the last one. She did make a pistol, it was a great shot to win. I just wish the game was more of a game.

“Maybe it’s a good tactic against us, to play extremely boring. Congratulations to them, they got a ‘W’ out of it. I just don’t think it was an entertaining game whatsoever.”

It should be noted, of course, the Koreans were under no obligation to entertain the 3,551 gathered in the arena or the hundreds of thousands watching on television. Their only priority was to win, and in the end, that’s precisely what they did. Nothing fancy (until the 10th, that is), but certainly effective, both in terms of the end result and the effect it quite obviously had on Nedohin throughout the game.

“It was on purpose that the strategy was very simple,” said Kim. “I thought the way to beat Team Canada was to keep it close, and that way we could be more comfortable in doing what we do.”

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And it was quite apparent the Koreans were very comfortable with using the hammer they earned thanks to their superior round-robin record (8-3 to Canada’s 7-4) to dictate the game. And it should be pointed out that even when given opportunities at hit-and-rolls (the Koreans typically put a rock in the 12-foot circle with their first stone after a Canadian centre guard), Team Canada never managed to force the issue with a well-placed roll.

In the 10th, trailing by one and holding the hammer, the Koreans finally went all-out on offence, and got a wonderful hit-and-roll from Shin to start the buildup for the winning deuce. But the shot of the game — and perhaps the best bit of coaching in this championship — came on third rocks when coach Min-Suk Choi came out and offered up a shot few in the arena even saw, a split on Lee’s first delivery that left her team sitting first and third. Iskiw and Nedohin couldn’t follow up on back-to-back freeze attempts, and in the end, it was left to Kim to make the short raise for the win and crush the hopes of the Canadian team.

“I mean, it’s devastating,” said Peters, whose 42nd birthday celebration was muted by the loss. “I’m not happy at all. We came here to win gold. We’re not going to do that now.”

— Postmedia News