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Curling
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By Gregory Strong
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THE CANADIAN PRESS
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SYDNEY, N.S. — Canada’s Rachel Homan defeated Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni 7-5 on Sunday to win gold at the world women’s curling championship.
Homan made a split to score three points in the ninth end. The Swiss didn’t have a shot for a game-tying deuce in the 10th end and conceded before throwing their final stone.
The win ended Canada’s six-year title drought at this event. It was Homan’s first world crown since taking gold at the 2017 playdowns in Beijing.
Jennifer Jones was the last Canadian to win world gold, finishing first in 2018 in North Bay, Ont.
Homan and her team of third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes picked up where they left off after running the table at the national championship last month.
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Canada was 11-1 in round-robin play at Centre 200 and beat South Korea’s Eunji Gim in the semifinal.
That set up the top-ranked Ottawa-based rink for a showdown with the second-ranked Tirinzoni, who had won four straight world titles.
Homan’s side entered with confidence after winning all four head-to-head meetings against Tirinzoni this season. The Canadian also ended Tirinzoni’s 42-game win streak at this competition earlier in the week.
As first seed, Canada started with hammer but the Swiss forced Homan to draw for one in the opening end.
The host team made some small mistakes in the early going.
Miskew hit and rolled out in the second end and Homan’s freeze attempt was slightly off. That allowed Swiss fourth Alina Paetz to make a soft hit for two.
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Canada was forced again in the third end and Homan’s final stone undercurled in the fourth to set up a Swiss hit for two.
Paetz was heavy on back-to-back throws in the fifth end to allow Canada to pull even with a pair of its own.
Two blanks preceded an eighth end with rocks in play. Fleury made a hit that rolled frozen on the button and Tirinzoni couldn’t blast out the Canadian stones.
Homan made a hit to sit four and Paetz was forced to draw for one.
In the critical ninth end, Homan made two great shots that turned the game.
Her rocket double-takeout left Canada sitting three. Paetz made a double-takeout that left Canada as shot stone with two Swiss stones on the back of the 12-foot ring.
Homan tapped her own rock near the top of the house and both stones rolled in to score three, thrilling the near-sellout crowd of 4,373.
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The win improved Homan’s season record to 62-6. She improved to 24-8 in career head-to-head matchups against Tirinzoni.
Earlier, Gim defeated Italy’s Stefania Constantini 6-3 to win the bronze medal.
Homan and Miskew were named competition all-stars at their respective positions. Sweden’s Sara McManus took the nod at third and Swiss lead Carole Howald was named top lead.
Overall attendance at the nine-day event was 45,602. Uijeongbu, South Korea will host next year’s world women’s championship.
The world men’s curling championship begins Saturday in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., will skip the Canadian team.
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