UIJEONGBU-SI — Eunji Gim gave local fans a reason to celebrate Wednesday morning at Uijeongbu Arena as her surging squad knocked off Rachel Homan's Canadian crew 11-7 at the LGT world women's curling championship.
Gim's round-robin record improved to 6-1, second behind Silvana Tirinzoni's 7-0 team from Switzerland. Canada slipped to third place at 5-2 with Sweden.
Gim and Homan were tied 3-3 after six ends, but the South Korean skip scored three in the seventh with hammer to go ahead 6-3. Canada got one back in the seventh, but surrendered a deuce in the eighth to fall behind 8-4.
Homan made a game of it by scoring three in the ninth to trim the deficit to 8-7, but Gim scored three in the 10th for the victory.
"Yeah, it hurts. We would have liked to have played a little bit better, but lots of learning to be done. There's a lot that we'll take away from that game," Canadian vice-skip Tracy Fleury said. "Just a little bit of rock placement, rock management, some line calling and some stuff with the sheet."
Both teams put on a clinic, with Canada shooting 90 per cent and South Korea clocking in at 94 per cent efficiency.
Canadian lead Wilkes threw a perfect 100 per cent game. But South Korea's Gim stood out as the most significant difference-maker in the game, shooting 94 per cent and outscoring Homan by 15 percentage points.
"They always play well," said Fleury. "We know that they would come out strong and they did. They made a lot of shots out there."
In other morning action, Sayaka Yoshimura of Japan beat Madeleine Dupont of Denmark 8-2 in six ends, Rui Wang of China rolled past Tabitha Peterson of the United States 7-1 in eight ends, and Anna Hasselborg of Sweden beat Virginija Paulauskaite of Lithuania 8-2 in eight ends.
Canada's next game will be against Norway (4-3).
The top six teams in the 13-team field will qualify for knockout play starting Saturday. Medal games are scheduled for Sunday.
Homan won gold at the 2024 world playdowns in Sydney, N.S.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2025.
The Canadian Press