Canada’s women’s curling team will play for gold after disposing of Switzerland in this morning’s semi-final at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

The Canadian team, consisting of skip Cheryl Burnard, Susan O’Connor, Carolyn Darbyshire and Cori Bartel did not let down the expectant home fans and will now play Sweden, who completely outplayed China to win 9-4.

Burmard, O’Connor, Darbyshire and Bartel have never represented their nation before the Olympic Games, and despite public scepticism over their ability to bring home a medal for the host nation, they have now won over the crowd with their prowess.

Canada has never failed to win a medal at the Olympic Games in women’s curling after winning gold in Nagano and then bronze in both Salt Lake City and Torino.

In this morning’s match Canada took the lead in the first end, before Switzerland levelled up straight away. The two teams traded stones for the majority of the match before Canada scored two crucial points in the sixth end and held off a late Switzerland surge to seal the match 6-5.

Sweden meanwhile totally outplayed the world champion Chinese outfit to cruise into the gold medal match.

The final score of 9-4 was on the cards after Sweden held a 6-1 lead through five ends, and the Chinese were never able to fight back from that deficit.

The final will be played on Friday 3pm (Vancouver time).

David Polglase
AOC - Vancouver