LACOMBE, Alta. — Canada's Brad Gushue tuned up for the playoffs Thursday by posting a 7-4 victory over China's Xiaoming Xu at the Pan Continental curling championship.
Gushue, from St. John's, N.L., closed out the win by making a double-takeout for a single in the 10th end.
His team of vice Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker was unbeaten in round-robin play at 7-0. Canada will play Japan's Shinya Abe in the semifinals on Thursday evening.
"The biggest thing is just to keep the momentum going," Walker said. "You don't want to fall into bad habits and take any game or shot lightly.
"You want to keep doing your thing and keep building on getting better and better."
Japan (4-3) fell into fourth place after dropping an 8-2 decision to American John Shuster (6-1), who will meet Xu (4-3) in the other semifinal.
In other early games, New Zealand's Anton Hood dumped Taiwan's Ken Hsu 13-3 and South Korea's Jaebeom Lee outscored Australia's Hugh Millikin 9-7.
South Korea finished at 3-4 ahead of Australia and New Zealand at 2-5. Winless Taiwan (0-7) was relegated to the B division next year.
Gushue is looking to win gold at this event for the third year in a row.
"We've got to get a little bit more solid," he said. "I think we're playing well, just not great."
In women's play, Ottawa's Rachel Homan was scheduled to meet Japan's Miyu Ueno on Thursday afternoon in a battle of 6-0 rinks.
Both teams have qualified for the semifinals Friday morning. South Korea's Eunji Gim (4-2) has also secured a playoff spot while American Cory Thiesse (3-3) and China's Rui Wang (3-3) remained in contention.
Competition continues through Saturday at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex. The event is a qualifier for the 2025 world championships.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
The Canadian Press