The United States won the ‘2023 Mixed Doubles World Curling Championships’ held in Gangneung.
Cory Dropkin and Cory Thiesse of the United States won the gold medal by beating Japan 8-2 in the final match on the last day of the tournament held at the Gangneung Curling Center on the 29th.
Kim Ji-yoon and Jung Byung-jin (above Seoul City Hall) of Korea, who placed 9th in Group A (2-7) in the preliminary round-robin, won 8-6 in the relegation match against Austria (2-7), which ranked 8th in Group B. He retained his right to participate in the next tournament.
In the final match of the day, the United States led the game comfortably by stealing 3 points in the 1st and 2nd ends.
Japan, which started a counterattack, attempted two takeouts, but only scored one point in the third end, and pursued a tough 3-1.
However, the USA perfectly attacked the pot in the 4th end, added 2 points, and maintained the lead at 5-1.
On the 5th end power play, Japan lost the game 6-1 after the last shot slipped too far and was stolen by the USA.
In the end, when the USA scored 2 points in the 7th end and the score widened to 8-2, Japan admitted defeat and shook hands.
“I can’t believe it. I’m speechless. I’m so proud of my partner. We had a great week and it’s amazing,” said U.S.A.’s Corey Thiese, who won the championship.
“We were able to play and win the championship just like we’ve been doing all week, making sure we were physically and mentally ready,” said USA’s Corey Dropkin.
Runner-up Yasumasa Tanida of Japan said: “Today our game wasn’t good and they played really well. But we started the week with eight wins in a row, so it was a fantastic week. It’s so much fun playing mix doubles. there is,” he said.
Earlier in the bronze medal match, Norway beat Canada 6-2 to rise to the podium.
At the 2023 World Senior Curling Championships held at the Gangneung Hockey Center on this day, Canada won both men’s and women’s championships.
The Canadian women’s team defeated Scotland 8-4 in the final, while the Canadian men’s team defeated Scotland 7-2 to win the championship.
In the women’s bronze medal, Japan beat Switzerland 6-4, and in the men’s bronze medal, Switzerland beat the United States 7-4 to finish in third place.
The Korean men’s senior national team finished in 6th place in Group B (2 wins, 5 losses) in the preliminary round robin, which was divided into 3 groups of 8 countries each.
Meanwhile, this tournament was held in Korea for the first time in 14 years since the 2009 Women’s Curling World Championships, but due to the lack of preparation and failure of publicity by the Korea Curling Federation and the organizing committee, the ㅋㅋㅋ벳 media and fans turned away from the world championships. It is evaluated that it has revealed the limits of its capacity to hold it.
In particular, the Korea Curling Federation held this season’s Qualification Qualification, where the men’s and women’s 4-member national team, Seoul City Hall (Jung Byung-jin, Kim Tae-hwan, Kim Min-woo, Lee Jung-jae) and Chuncheon City Hall (Ha Seung-yeon, Kim Hye-rin, Tae-yi Yang, Kim Su-jin) compete in the top 6 at the World Championships. After failing to advance to the game, even mixed doubles (Kim Ji-yoon and Jeong Byung-jin) were unable to avoid responsibility for managing the power of the national team, such as pulling up before relegation.
Even at the awards ceremony on this day, it was reported that the progress of the event was confused and lack of preparation was revealed amid the ignorance of the domestic media.