New Zealand Curling

The NZ Under-21 Men's team have secured the bronze medal at the 2009 Pacific Junior Curling Championships in Harbin, China.

The Kiwis forced their way into playoff contention by overwhelming Japan 14-3 in a tie-breaker match after both teams finished the double round robin with a 2 win / 4 loss record. The reward for NZ was a semi-final against Korea, but the late Kiwi charge ended there when they went down 4-8.

Korea went on to play round-robin winners China for the gold medal, with the Chinese men winning 7-3.

The NZ team of Kris Miller, Mat Weir, Elliot Morgan, Tim Miller and Lachlan Browne started the tournament well with a 6-5 win over home-town favourites China. After a string of narrow losses they needed to beat Korea in the last round to force the sudden-death tie-breaker, and they achieved this with a final end steal for an 8-7 victory.

The bronze medal is the best-ever result for the NZ Men at this tournament – the NZ Women took the bronze at Naseby in 2007.

The NZ Women's team – Abby Pyle, Lucy Harris, Lucy Lane, Brittany Taylor and Katie Bauer – missed out on the playoffs this year. They finished the round robin in fourth place of the five teams with 2 wins from 8. Their results included agonizing 1-point defeats in both games against the second-ranked Chinese.

China beat Korea 10-3 in the Women's Semi-Final. In the final, round-robin winners Japan continued their unbeaten run through the tournament in taking the gold medal match 7-5. Both gold medallists, the Chinese men and the Japanese women, qualified for the 2009 World Junior Curling Championships in March. This tournament will take place at the venue that will host next year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Otago Daily Times articles:

• 8 Jan 2009 – Key role for young curlers
• 12 Jan 2009 – NZ juniors have chance for first champs
• 15 Jan 2009 – Juniors third in Pacific event

World Curling Federation links:

• 12 Jan 2009 – Japan, China, lead the Pacific Junior Curling Challenge
• 14 Jan 2009 – China, Japan win berths into World Juniors