S. Korea stretches winning streak to 3 at women's curling world championship

SEOUL, March 16 (Yonhap) -- The host country South Korea ran its winning streak to three at the women's curling world championship with two victories Sunday.

Led by skip Gim Eun-ji, South Korea beat Norway 6-4 and then Scotland 5-4 on Day 2 of the LGT World Women's Curling Championship at Uijeongbu Indoor Ice Rink in Uijeongbu, some 20 kilometers north of Seoul.

South Korea had opened the competition with a 10-8 victory over Japan in extra ends on Saturday.

Gim's team also needed extra time to get past Scotland, as the skip scored the clinching point with a draw with her final stone in the 11th end. South Korea and Switzerland, both at 3-0, are the only two undefeated teams so far.

South Korea will next play China (2-1) at 2 p.m. Monday and Turkey (0-3) at 7 p.m.

The 13 teams in the competition will face each other once in the round robin, and the top six will qualify for the playoff round -- with the two best teams each earning a bye to the semifinals and the remaining four competing for the last two semifinal berths.

The qualification matches and the semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, followed by the bronze medal contest and the championship final next Sunday.

Gim and her four teammates -- Kim Min-ji, Kim Su-ji, Seol Ye-eun and alternate Seol Ye-ji -- are all from Uijeongbu.

At this world championship, South Korea will try to secure a spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. The top seven teams in points earned from the 2024 and 2025 world championships will book their tickets to Milan, and South Korea is in a good spot after collecting 11 points with its bronze medal at last year's world championship.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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