Team Sweden will have a chance to go for double gold in 2018 as the Swedish rink skipped by Anna Haaselborg defeated Russia 7-6 in the first semifinal at the 2018 Ford World Women’s Curling Championships here in North Bay.
The key point of the game was a steal of a deuce by the Swedes in the sixth end against a Russian team that was one of the toughest teams to steal against all week at the worlds during round robin play.
The Swedes increased their lead in the eighth adding another deuce which made it 7-3 after eight ends. The Russians, skipped by Victoria Moiseeva, rebounded in the ninth with two of their own to give the Swedes a two-point lead and the hammer in the 10th.
A steal of one in 10 was not enough as Sweden held on for the win.
The Hasselborg rink captured the gold medal in the Women’s Curling event at the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang last month.
The Swedes will wait to see the winner of the Canada-USA semifinal draw which takes place at 7 p.m. tonight.
Russia will face the loser of Saturday night’s game in the bronze medal match at 10 a.m. Sunday morning while the gold medal match between Sweden and tonight’s winner will take place at 3 p.m.
