NZ miss out on bronze at Pacific-Asia champs

Team NZ vs China in the bronze medal match at Pacific-Asia Championships 2019

New Zealand played China in the bronze medal game. Photo © WCF / Richard Gray

10 Nov 2019 – The home side China beat New Zealand 9-4 in the Men's playoff for third at the Pacific-Asia Curling Championship 2019 in Shenzhen yesterday. This earned Team China the bronze medal, and with it an entry to the Qualifying Event for next year's World Men's Championship.

The Kiwis found themselves chasing the game early, after a missed runback gave Chinese skip Qiang Zou the chance to draw for a big 4-point lead in the first end.

"Unfortunately we didn't play like we should have in this game," said NZ skip Scott Becker. "We showed some of what we could do, but against professional teams you cannot afford so many misses."

"Thank you to everyone who has sent us messages and support, it has been hugely appreciated," he added, on behalf of his teammates Anton Hood, Brett Sargon and Warren Dobson.

Korea won the gold medal match 11-2 over Japan. This gave the Koreans direct entry to the World Men's Championship, while Japan will join China in the preliminary World Qualifying Event.

The New Zealand side performed strongly in the tournament, thoroughly deserving their place in the semi-finals with a 6 win - 3 loss record in the round-robin. Their six wins included key victories over Australia 9-3, and Chinese Taipei 8-7.

In the semi-final against the eventual gold medallists, the scores were level through the first six ends before Korea pulled away to win 10-6.

The Women's title was won by China, ahead of Japan and Korea. NZ did not field a Women's team this year.