2009-03-26 16:18:11 -
GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) - Defending champion Canada's Jennifer Jones eliminated Switzerland from the playoffs with a 10-7 win over Mirjam Ott at the Women's World Curling Championship on Thursday.
Ott was in a must-win situation to finish 7-4 and force a tiebreaker against Sweden's Anette Norberg for the fourth and final playoff spot.
However, Jones stole the second end to move 4-0 ahead. With the score favoring Canada 7-3 in the sixth end, Jones missed a takeout and the Swiss scored three to close the gap to 7-6.
In the final end, Ott made a solid corner freeze but Jones executed a short runback double to score two and win the match.
With China's Bingyu Wang and Denmark's Angelina Jensen also winning their final round-robin games, the playoffs are set with No. 1 China (10-1) facing No. 2 Denmark (9-2) Friday and No. 3 Canada (9-2) meeting No. 4 Sweden (7-4) on Saturday.
China or Denmark will advance to Sunday's final, while the loser drops into Saturday's semifinals. Canada or Sweden advances to the semifinal, while the loser drops into Sunday's bronze medal game.
China recorded a 7-2 win against Norway (1-10) in its last match to confirm its No. 1 ranking.
Denmark's 9-3 win over 2003 champion Debbie McCormick of the United States (4-7) gave the Danes their second playoff berth in three years, following their silver medal in 2007 at Aomori, Japan.
«I think we are playing better and better,» Denmark fourth thrower Madeleine Dupont said. «I know all the teams say that but it's true _ we are getting better and better.
In Thursday's other night match, Germany's Andrea Schoepp (6-5) took three in the final end to win 8-6 over Russia's Olga Zharkova (5-6).
Earlier, China's Wang Bingyu edged Norberg 8-7. Wang scored three in the first end. Norberg _ the two-time world and Olympic champion _ made three straight ends to take a 4-3 lead.
But Wang replied with a deuce in the fifth and a steal of two in the sixth for a 7-4 lead, which the Chinese never relinquished.
It was Wang's first win in four head-to-head matches with Norberg at the world championships, dating back to 2005.
«It does not matter for us, where we finish, after we are in the playoffs,» Wang said. «We just want to keep doing well and play well for the last round.
All the teams involved in final draw action except for Norway performed well enough in Gangneung to confirm their countries' qualification for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
Sweden and Scotland's Eve Muirhead (5-6) also qualified, as did Japan, which missed the 2009 worlds after finishing third behind China and South Korea at December's Pacific Championships.
South Korea's Kim Mi-Yeon Kim (3-8) and Italy's Diana Gaspari (1-10) failed to qualify their countries for Vancouver.
