On the other side of the world

The Pacific Championships were played last week in Naseby, New Zealand, to decide the nations which will go forward from the Pacifics Zone to the World Championships. The organisation of the event was somewhat testing to follow!

The five countries involved in the women's event played a double round robin to begin with. The World Women's Championship will be held in Korea (in Gangneung, March 21-29) so that country has an automatic qualification, and only one other qualification place was available. Here's how it was all explained before the event:

"The Women (5 teams) will play a double round robin. At the end of the round robin series there must be a ranking from 1 to 3 for the playoffs, and the final rankings established for the 4th and 5th teams. This ranking will be done in accordance with the WCF Rules of Competition (C9 - Page 32). The team ranked #1 will go directly to the final game.

a) if Korea is directly into the final, the semi-final (2 v 3) will be a 'best-of-five' series of games. The results (W or L) of the two games in the double round robin will be considered as the first 2 games of this 'best-of-five' series. The final will be a single game.
b) if any other team is directly into the final, the semifinal (2 v 3) will be a single game, and
(i) the final, if Korea is in that game, will be a single game
(ii) the final, if Korea is not in that game, will be a 'best-of-five' series of games. The results (W or L) of the two games in the double round robin will be considered as the first 2 games of these 'best-of-five' series.
The Gold medal winner (or Silver medal winner if Korea wins the Gold) will qualify their Association for the 2009 World Women’s Curling Championship."

Right, I hope you've got all that! (I'm definitely getting too old.) So how did it pan out?

After the round robin games China was top with seven wins and got a bye to the final. Japan had six wins and Korea four, so both of these were in the semifinal. New Zealand finished with three wins and Australia was winless. So it was a single game semifinal, and Korea beat Japan 9-6. It will be China and Korea at the Worlds. For the record though, in the single game final, Bingyu Wang's Chinese side beat Korea to win the Pacific Gold.

So Japan's Moe Meguro does not get back to the Worlds where she finished fourth last season, just being pipped by Canada in the semifinal at Vernon.

Now, let's take the Men's Championship. There were six countries involved, looking for two places at the Ford World Men's Championship in April. The teams played a double round robin to find a ranking. The top four teams progressed to 'semifinals'. 1 played 4 and 2 played 3 in best-of-five series, the round robin games being considered as the first two results of the best-of-five. The winners of these two series of matches progressed to a final game, both gaining their places at the Worlds.

Three countries were tied on seven wins after the double round robin. Ranking based on who had beaten who showed Korea (1st), China (2nd) and New Zealand (3rd) with Japan in 4th place on five wins.

Hugh Milliken's Australians did not qualify for the playoffs, winning four games, and Milliken, a fixture at the last four world events, won't be celebrating the fifty years of world curling in Moncton, New Brunswick, April 4-12.

In the semifinal games then, Korea played Japan, the latter starting the best of five series with a two game advantage. The Koreans won the next two games, and so it all came down to a single decider. Japan won that, and qualified for the Worlds.

In the other semifinal, China came through by three games to one against New Zealand to reach the final and qualify for the Worlds, and indeed the Chinese team beat Japan in the Gold Medal game. You can find the results and linescores here. The team lineups are here.

The regulations on how the Pacific Championships are run can be found in the WCF Rulebook (here). However, to make it even more difficult for those of us watching from the sidelines, these regulations were not followed. In the men's event, rather than playing a single round robin according to the WCF rulebook, a double round robin was played. One has to ask why. Is the new 2008 WCF Rulebook wrong?

It does not seem logical (to me) to have one regulation in the Rulebook, then to play an event using different rules. Mind you it is not the first time that I've accused those in the World Federation of being strangers to logic. Remember this post?

I expect someone will tell me if there was a reason why the Pacific Men's Championship was run the way it was.

Added later. I was correct. Keith Wendorf sends this response:

"The PCF controls the playing system, etc. for their Championship. There was lots of discussion with their Member Associations about the playing system to be used at the 2008 event. They decided that having the weaker teams travel all the way to NZL for only 4 games (women) and 5 games (men) was not reasonable. I as Chief Umpire agreed with their decision and everyone was well aware of this playing format before traveling to NZL.

They voted at their AGA to have in the future a double round robin and then the Page playoff system. So the WCF rule book will have to be amended on the next printing."

Two Golds for China at Pacific Championships

China's men and women both won their gold medal matches at the Pacific Curling Championships in Beijing today. The men beat Australia and the women defeated Japan. All four teams have berths in the world championships later this season. China and Japan will play at Vernon, BC, in the Ford World Women's Championship 2008, and China and Australia in Grand Forks, North Dakota, in the Men's World Championship 2008.

All the results from the Pacific Championships are here.

The photo of the two gold medal winning teams is courtesy of Keith Wendorf.

Qualifiers from Pacific Championships

China and Australia have both qualified for the 2008 World Men's Curling Championship in Grand Forks, North Dakota. China beat Japan in two straight games in their best-of-three semifinals at the Pacific Championships in Beijing. Australia beat New Zealand twice in their semifinal matches. Japan and Australia have still to meet though to decide who wins the Pacific Championship Gold.

The results are all here.

The Chinese women are also through to the Ford World Women's Championship in Vernon, British Columbia. Bingyu Wang ended up being ranked in first place after the women's double round robin with a 7-1 win-loss record. That was the same record that Japan had, but China had the better Draw Shot Challenge (China - 178.40 cm and Japan - 293.40 cm). That means China wins the Gold medal and qualifies for the Worlds.

Japan will now play against the third ranked team (Korea 4-4) and the winner of that game will get the Silver medal and qualifies their Association to the Women's World Championship.

It shows you, does it not, the importance of the team draw shot distance that has been introduced recently at championship events!

More on the Pacific Curling Championships

I was asked how exactly the teams for the world championships will be decided at the Pacific Championships which are in progress this week in Beijing. The Men (six teams) are playing a single round-robin and at the end of the round robin series the teams will be ranked. The top ranked four move forward to 'semifinals'. The team ranked 1st will play a 'best-of-three' series of games against the team ranked 4th, and the team ranked 2nd will play a 'best-of-three' series of games against the team ranked 3rd. The winners of the Men’s semifinal series will play in a gold medal decider, but both teams qualify their associations for the 2008 World Men’s Curling Championship.

The Women (five teams) are playing a double round-robin and at the end of these games will be ranked. The team ranked 1st will receive the Gold medal and qualify their Association for the 2008 World Women’s Curling Championship. The teams ranked 2nd and 3rd will play in a silver/bronze medal game, and the silver medal winner will also qualify their association for the 2008 World Women’s Curling Championship.

Follow the results here.

What's it like in Beijing? These photos are courtesy of Keith Wendorf, and give a flavour of the event. That's the Chinese team above.

Nostalgia

I'm sure it was nothing to do with yesterday's post on Curling Today, but the World Curling Federation website now has a link on its home page to the results and standings at the Pacific Championships!

And I found the 1989 photo I was thinking of. What a filing system! The pic below shows the Japanese women's team at a world championship prequalifier at Engelberg. Where are they now, I wonder?

Photo by Bob.

Pacific Championships underway

I must say that I have watched with interest the growth of curling in Asia and the Pacific region. In the 80s I drove around a young Japanese boy's team on their first excursion overseas (they played at Greenacres and Inverness), and I remember clearly watching the Japanese women's team trying to get into the worlds in a qualification competition in Engelberg in 1989. Seems like yesterday!

Lots has happened since then of course. I applauded the decision of the WCF to expand the world events to twelve teams, even though that would mean the splitting of the two events. The plus was that there was room to expand the curling world.

So what's significant about any of this to Curling Today? Well, the Pacific Championships began today in Beijing to find which countries will occupy the two slots available in both the Men’s and Women’s World Championships later this season.

Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea and New Zealand are contesting the men’s event. China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Australia are in the women’s event.

There is no local website for the event, apparently. And I was all set to castigate the WCF that their new website has no details of teams or scores either. (It's definitely a case of new is not necessarily better in this case). As of tonight, there is nothing on the home page to indicate that the championships are taking place. Now, is that not a poor show?

However, I knew the results had to be there.... somewhere. Pal Ahlgren does a great job on all the stats, and Keith Wendorf, the WCF Director of Competitions, is in Beijing and feeding the results to everyone interested. So, with a bit of digging I eventually found the results and team lists! Everything is here.

Right, I usually illustrate my posts with a pic. I'm pretty sure the photo below (by Hugh Stewart) is Japan's Moe Meguro who is skipping the Japanese team in Beijing. This is from Aomori last year. I found this website when trying to confirm the identity! It shows that Moe is indeed a left hander. Apologies if I've got it wrong. But it's a great photo, especially to see a worried looking umpire, Christine Shaw, in the background. (And if anyone is asking, when I saw Christine recently she was looking great after her illness). So, did Moe win her first game today. No, down 7-6 to Bingyu Wang's Chinese side.

And the men? Hugh Milliken's Australia lost their first game to China.

Now, I if I can just find a photo from 1989?