Estonia's mixed curlers beat Denmark to keep World champs hopes alive
Estonian curling pair Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill have kept their world championships hopes afloat after defeating Denmark 10–7 in Geneva Wednesday evening.
Going into the match, Estonia were 4:3 in the win-loss ratio and joint fourth in Group A, making the Denmark game a must-win to maintain hopes of making the playoffs. Denmark had only won one match in the round robin tournament.
Despite this, Estonia fell behind 5–0 after two ends against the Danish pairing of Karolina Jensen and Alexander Qvist, but with a power play, Lill and Kaldvee immediately scored three points, then stole another in the fourth end.
Denmark managed to pick up two points in the fifth, but Estonia responded with three in the sixth and even stole one more in the seventh, despite it being their opponents' power play.
Estonia led 8–7 ahead of the final end, and while the Danes had last stone advantage, it was Estonia who scored the two points, marking their fifth win alongside three losses in the tournament standings.
After the match, Kaldvee commented that despite the victory, they were unable to fully find their tempo. "We are capable of playing well, but at times we can't get everything to click for the entire game," he said. "However, 10 points to our teamwork, because by working together we managed to come back from a difficult position and stay united in tough moments."
The pair have their final match on Thursday afternoon versus the Netherlands. To go through to the knockout stages, Kaldvee and Lill not only need to win, but also hope for defeats for Japan and Sweden, who both have six wins in hand. The top three in the group go through to the playoffs.
ERR's Sport portal is carrying live coverage of the Estonia–Netherlands match at 3 p.m. Estonian time Thursday.
--
Editor: Andrew Whyte
