Marie Turmann/Harri Lill of Tallinn, Estonia wins the New Zealand Winter Games Mixed Doubles Gold Medal, defeating Canada's Kalynn Park/Charley Thomas (Calgary, Alberta) 7-6, who take home the Silver Medal from the 16 team event played at the Maniototo Curling International Rink in Naseby, New Zealand as part of a larger winter sport competition. Starting with hammer, Estonia scored 3 in the first end, then forced Canada to a single in the second end. Estonia scored a single in the third end, then added a steal in the fourth end. Park scored a single in the fifth end to cut the deficit to 5-2, added a steal in the sixth end, added another steal of 3 in the seventh end to take a 6-5 lead into the final end. Having given up the lead, Estonia buckled down and scored 2 in the eighth end for the 7-6 win. Norway's Kristin Skaslien/Magnus Nedregotten defeated Hyeji Jang / Kijeong Lee 10-2 for the Bronze Medal. In the semifinals Park/Thomas defeated Skaslien/Nedregotten 8-9 while Turmann/Lill knocked off Jang/Lee 8-5. To advance to the semifinals, Turman/Lill defeated Scotland's Judith and Lee McCleary 7-5 while Skaslien/Nedregotten defeated Ildiko Szekeres/Georgy Nagy 7-4. Park/Thomas and Jang/Lee advanced directly to the semifinals by winning their pools. Turmann/Lill went 5-2 in the 16 team round-robin pools qualifying round. In their opening game, Turmann/Lill lost 9-8 to Japan (Haruka Fujii/Go Aoki), then responded with a 7-4 win over Australia (Lynn Hewitt/Dean Hewitt). Turmann/Lill won against China (Ying Cao/Yan Long) 6-4, losing their next game to Korea 8-7, then responded with a 10-4 win over Finland (Oona Kauste/Tomi Rantamaki). Turmann/Lill finished the round-robin with wins against New Zealand (Eleanor Adviento/Brett Sargon) Hungary 7-6 to qualify for the playoff round. FINAL STANDINGS: GOLD: Estonia (Marie Turmann/Harri Lill) SILVER: Canada (Kalynn Park/Charley Thomas) BRONZE: NORWAY (Kristin Skaslien/Magnus Nedregotten) |