MOOSE JAW -- The playoff picture is becoming more and more clear at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship.
With three draws remaining in the 12-team tournament at the Temple Gardens Centre in Moose Jaw, it’s looking as if four losses will be the cut-off point for teams to finish in the top six and advance to the playoff round -- though five losses and a tiebreaker win might also be enough.
To that end, Czechia’s Lukas Klima helped his cause during Draw 16 on Thursday afternoon, rolling to a 7-2 win over Austria’s Mathias Genner to improve to 6-4 and move into a tie for fourth place with China.
Klima, third Marek Cernovsky, second Martin Jurik and lead Lukas Klipa didn’t waste a lot of time getting through the contest, either. After the teams exchanged single points the first three ends and Czechia built a 2-1 lead, Klima would steal one in the fourth before pulling away with a four-ender in the fifth. Genner would get one back in the sixth but decided to shake hands.
Scotland’s Bruce Mouat did his part to avoid the four-loss zone by taking an 8-6 win over the United States’ Korey Dropkin. The U.S. lead 5-4 heading into the eighth end, but Mouat would take control of things with a three-spot, after which the two teams exchanged single points the final two frames.
After heading into the day a win off the lead, China’s Xiaoming Xu suddenly finds himself fighting for his playoff life at 6-4 after falling 7-6 to Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi. Japan actually led that contest 6-3 heading into the ninth end, but Xu would get three to tie things up. Yamaguchi would put the hammer to good use in the final end, though, getting his one and the win.
The other contest was a battle of two teams that will miss the playoffs, as Italy’s Joel Retornaz only needed six ends to get past Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz 8-6.
Standings after Draw 16 are as follows:
Canada (Jacobs) 8-1
Switzerland (Schwaller) 7-2
Scotland (Mouat) 7-3
Sweden (Edin) 6-3
China (Xu) 6-4
Czechia (Klima) 6-4
Norway (Ramsfjell) 5-4
United States (Dropkin) 4-5
Germany (Muskatewitz) 4-6
Japan (Yamaguchi) 4-6
Austria (Genner) 1-9
Korea (Kim) 0-9
Canada’s Brad Jacobs has already clinched a playoff spot and faces Switzerland in the marquee match-up of Draw 17 on Thursday evening. You can follow along with all the action from the first-place showdown on SportsCage.com’s live blog during the game at 7 p.m. and catch all the updated scores and standings at www.worldcurling.org.
