Estonia curling duo face must-win game at Milano Cortina Paralympics
Estonia's Paralympic wheelchair mixed curling duo Kätlin Riidebach and Ain Villau now have an uphill struggle to make it to the medals matches at the ongoing Milano Cortina Paralympics after suffering their fourth straight loss on Sunday.
Riidebach and Villau got the competition off to a great start by beating Great Britain and then hosts Italy in their round-robin matches. However, losses to the U.S. on Thursday, to Latvia on Friday and then a 12–2 defeat against unbeaten China on Saturday reversed that state of affairs, albeit in a fairly tight group, leaving Estonia joint fourth in the table.
Next up was Japanese pair Aki Ogawa and Yoji Nakajima on Sunday, who had the same 2:3 win-loss ratio as Estonia heading into the clash, meaning both teams had it all to play for.
While the Estonian pair started solidly enough against Japan and earned one point in the first three ends, their opponents equalized in the fourth end and added another point in the next two ends, taking a 5–3 lead by the end of the sixth. The seventh end went poorly for Villau and Riidebach, putting Japan five points ahead — a gap the Estonians were unable to claw their way back from — and the Japanese won 8–3.
"The feeling was good, everything went nicely at the beginning. From there on we made a lot of wrong tactical decisions," Riidebach said after the match.
"It was a winnable game, there's no question about it. There were things we couldn't be satisfied with. The players weren't fully in the game, and that showed in several aspects. Against Latvia and the U.S. we lost for objective reasons, but today that certainly can't be said. I guess we're just not ready yet," was coach Aleksander Andre's estimation.
Estonia is now seventh out of the eight teams in the round robin, with one more match to go, against South Korea on Monday.
However, only China has secured qualification for the medals playoff at this late stage, meaning the Estonians are still in with a theoretical chance of going through if they beat the South Koreans. Things are so tight that there is a five-way tie for second place involving the Koreans, plus the U.S., Great Britain, Latvia and Japan.
The top four teams from the eight taking part in the round-robin stage advance to the medals playoffs, which conclude Wednesday.
ERR's Sport portal is carrying the final round-robin match against South Korea live from 3:30 p.m. Estonian time Monday.
Paralympic curling follows the same rules as the able-bodied equivalent, save for the absence of sweepers on the ice. A teammate is permitted to steady the wheelchair of a competitor delivering a stone.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: ERR Sport
