Estonia's wheelchair mixed curling pair lose to Latvia in Milano Cortina Paralympics clash
Estonia's wheelchair mixed curling duo Kätlin Riidebach and Ain Villau went down 9–6 against Latvia at the Milan–Cortina Winter Paralympics Friday.
The loss to Latvians Polina Rožkova and Agris Lasmans was the second for Estonia, who had got off to a good start by beating Great Britain and hosts Italy, only to lose to the U.S. on Thursday.
Eight teams are taking part in the mixed doubles wheelchair curling tournament at the Paralympic Winter Games, all playing each other once in a round robin tournament of seven matches each. This means Riidebach and Villau are now 2:2, with three more games to go.
For Rožkova and Lasmans conversely, the win over their northern neighbors was the first of the tournament, having lost to the U.S., China and Great Britain.
In a game which swung both ways, Latvia stole one point early and later scored three in the fourth end; Estonia tied the game, then answered with three in the fifth and stole one more in the sixth despite Latvia's power play.
Estonia then led 6–5 only for Latvia to score four in the seventh. Needing three with a power play in the final end, Estonia conceded when that became unattainable.
Next up for the Estonians is China, so far undefeated, on Saturday, then on Sunday, Japan.
The medal matches take place next week, with the medals to be awarded March 11.
As happened with last month's Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, the mixed doubles curling has pre-empted the grand opening ceremony, which is today, Friday. Estonia is boycotting that event due to the inclusion of Russian and Belarusian paralympians at the games.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Siim Boikov
