THE CANADIAN PRESS
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — China’s stunning and sudden climb to the top of the women’s curling world is complete.
Bingyu Wang put together another masterful performance Sunday, outduelling Sweden’s Anette Norberg 8-6 to give her country its first-ever world women’s curling championship.
Trailing 7-6 in the 10th end, Norberg drew to the edge of the four-foot with her final shot to lie two. Wang chose to play a hit for the win and removed both Swedish stones, jumping in the air when they went spinning out of the house. The team then joined in a group hug in front of more than 1,500 fans at the Gangneung International Ice Rink.
"So exciting," Wang said, proudly displaying her gold medal. "This game (between) Sweden and us was played so well."
The diminutive skip burst onto the scene last year, emerging from obscurity to post a 9-2 round-robin record before losing to Canada’s Jennifer Jones in the final. Wang must have felt a sense of deja vu in her 2009 tournament opener, dropping an 11-6 decision to Jones in Draw 2.
She wouldn’t lose again.
Wang, third Yin Liu, second Qingshuang Yue and lead Yan Zhou reeled off 11 straight victories to get to the championship game, and controlled the final from start to finish on the way to securing Asia’s first world curling title.
After exchanging single points with Norberg to start the game, Wang took a 3-1 lead with a hit and roll for two in the fourth end. Norberg responded with one in the fifth, playing a deft hit and roll on her final shot to slide into the four-foot.
Wang extended the lead with another deuce in the sixth end, but Norberg replied with a draw for two in the seventh after Wang’s attempted comearound with her final shot wrecked on a stone out in front of the rings.
Wang made it 7-4 with a hit and stick for two in the eighth, and Norberg reduced the deficit once more with an open draw for two in the ninth, setting the stage for the frantic finish.
Wang admitted she had trouble sleeping Saturday night.
"I felt a little nervous and a little excited," said Wang. "I just told myself, `Just one more game, not the final game, don’t think too much."’
Norberg came up just short in her bid to become the third skip to win three world championships. Still, a second-place finish bodes well for the 42-year-old as she prepares to defend her Olympic title at next year’s Winter Games in Vancouver.
"We are very satisfied," said Norberg. "We had a rough winter at home, with a lot of personal problems.
"We were saying before coming here that if we were top-four, that would be okay for now. That’s not our usual goal going into the worlds, and then we finished in the finals, so we’re really happy about that."
Norberg finished the round-robin 7-4, then beat Canada’s Jennifer Jones 6-5 in the 3-versus-4 Page playoff to advance to the semifinal, where she downed Denmark’s Angelina Jensen 8-7.
Jensen beat Jones 8-6 in the bronze-medal game earlier Sunday.