Canada's Homan beats Denmark's Dupont at world women's curling championship

Canada skip Rachel Homan talks to Sarah Wilkes during their game against Denmark at the World Women's Curling Championship in Uijeongbu, South Korea, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

UIJEONGBU-SI — Canada’s Rachel Homan defeated Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont 9-3 in round-robin play Monday at the LGT world women’s curling championship.

Homan and her Ottawa-based team of Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes controlled the second half of the game to improve to 3-1. Canada scored a deuce in the sixth and added steals in the next two ends to wrap up the victory.

Miskew said the team was able to adapt to changing ice conditions at Uijeongbu Arena.

“It was quite a bit straighter than we’ve seen so far, so we had to adjust to that because it was faster and straighter,” she said. “But that’s kind of the surface that we had at the Scotties, so it was easy to adapt.

“Every sheet is just a little bit different, so we’re trying to figure it out one game at a time and staying patient.”

South Korea’s Eunji Gim and Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni led the standings at 5-0 after wins in the late draw. Canada was alone in third place ahead of Denmark and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg at 3-2.

Homan made a perfect freeze with her first shot of the game to set up an opening deuce.

The Canada skip had a rare flash in the second end but Denmark couldn’t take full advantage. Dupont was heavy with a draw for three and settled for a pair.

Denmark looked like it could score multiple points in the fifth end. Homan debated playing a runback to likely give up two or play aggressively with a draw to the four-foot to sit one, but risk giving up three.

Canada opted for the latter and Homan made it to perfection as Denmark was held to a single. The Canadian skip’s draw accuracy was 91 per cent on the day.

“We overstepped a couple of Tracy’s (throws) because it was faster than we were expecting, so we really knew the speeds,” Miskew said. “We were able to relay that information to (Rachel) confidently, which in other games is something that we didn’t always have a grasp on.”

After eight draws, China’s Rui Wang and American Tabitha Peterson were 2-2. Italy’s Stefania Constantini, Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura, Norway’s Marianne Roervik and Scotland’s Sophie Jackson were 2-3.

Lithuania’s Virginija Paulauskaite and Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz remained winless at 0-5. Competition continues through Sunday.

Homan won gold at last year’s playdowns in Sydney, N.S.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2025.