Canada’s Brad Jacobs defeated China’s Xiaoming Xu 8-2 in the early draw at the world men’s curling championship in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Jacobs, Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert controlled the game after jumping out to an early 4-1 lead. Their opponents conceded early after giving up a second straight steal in the seventh end.
“I think we came out with really good energy this morning, which is a little bit of a tough thing to do this late in the week,” Jacobs said. “But every time I think we can spare a few ends [it] saves our bodies and saves our minds a little bit, so that’s good.”
Canada improved to 8-1 in round-robin play ahead of a showcase game against Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller (7-2) in the evening.
Switzerland rolled to an 8-3 win over Italy’s Joel Retornaz, and Sweden’s Niklas Edin dumped Scotland’s Bruce Mouat 10-4. Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell doubled South Korea’s Hyojun Kim 10-5 in the other early game.
China fell into a three-way tie with Scotland and Sweden at 6-3. Norway and Czechia’s Lukas Klima were tied for sixth place at 5-4, and American Korey Dropkin was 4-4 entering the afternoon session.
WATCH | Canada breezes to 8-2 win over China in round-robin action:
Brad Jacobs’ Canadian rink routed China 8-2 in seven ends, to run their record to 8-1 at the world men’s curling championship in Moose Jaw, Sask.
The host team outscored the opposition 16-6 over two wins a day earlier and it kept the pressure on against China, a surprise contender at this 13-team event.
Canada used the hammer to score an opening deuce and took advantage of some errors by the Chinese side to build the scoreline. Xu settled for a single in the second end when he was light on an open draw to the four-foot ring.
Jacobs made a mistake of his own when he stuffed a double-takeout attempt in the fifth end and was forced to one.
China couldn’t take advantage of last rock in the sixth as Xu’s final stone rolled out to give Canada a steal of two. Xu finished with a game-low shooting percentage of 73 per cent.
Round-robin play continues through Friday night. The top six teams will make the weekend playoffs.
Canada is looking to win gold at this event for the first time since Brad Gushue’s victory in 2017 in Edmonton.
