Estonia crashes out of Paralympics mixed curling as Latvia makes it to medals games
Estonia's wheelchair mixed curling pair Kätlin Riidebach and Ain Villau are out of the Milano Cortina Paralympics after a heavy 10-0 defeat against South Korea.
The Latvian team have made it to the medals playoffs and now carry the hopes of a Baltic states medal on a day when Russia's team won its first paralympics gold medal at these games.
After opening with victories over Great Britain and Italy, things went downhill for the Estonians, who did not win a further match. Five losses in a row in the remaining round robin matches from Thursday to Monday followed, against the U.S., neighbors Latvia, and to China and then Japan.
Ahead of the South Korea game, Estonia still had a mathematical chance of reaching the medals playoffs, but would have had to have beaten the South Koreans. They would also have needed either Italy to beat Great Britain, or China to defeat the U.S.
The Estonian team fell 10-0 after the first six ends against Baek Hye-jin and Lee Yong-suk, meaning the final two ends were not needed. In total, their opponents managed to steal points five times in a row, including three in the fifth end alone.
Riidebach said after the encounter: "Yes, if you can't get your first stone into the house, you end up wrestling with guards and everything else. And the opponents simply put a stone on the button and that's it. There's nothing more you can do."
Villau also admitted that taking the initiative did not work out as expected. "If you start out chasing the game, you keep doing it," he said. "The opponents placed their stones perfectly and we lacked execution." Estonia thus finished the tournament with two wins and five losses.
"The mistakes were technical. Compared with yesterday and the day before, there weren't even such major shortcomings in tactics, but rather in execution," was coach Aleksander Andre's assessment.
Estonia finished seventh out of eight in the round robin table and so will not progress to the medals playoffs today and Wednesday.
The pair were also the sole Estonians competing in the Paralympics.
The U.K., Japan and hosts Italy are also eliminated and the medals playoffs will involve China, who only lost one match, the U.S., Latvia and South Korea.
The paralympics closing ceremony is on Sunday.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
