Dec 11 (Reuters) – Tabitha Peterson’s United States claimed an 8-4 comeback win over Marianne Roervik’s Norway on Thursday to clinch the final qualifying spot for the women’s curling competition at next year’s Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
The win came a day after the men’s team secured qualification, and ensured U.S. representation in all three disciplines at the Games.
Peterson’s rink were made to work for their win at the Kelowna Curling Club in British Columbia, Canada.
Trailing 3-0 early on, Peterson grabbed three points in the third end to level before a string of steals set them on their way to victory.
“We knew that if there was anything early like that, there was lots of time to battle back, and that’s just what we did,” Peterson said.
“It’s very special (to qualify for the Olympics), especially with this group of girls. I can’t wait to get there and perform and show the world what we can do.”
Norway were competing in the second playoff game after losing 6-5 to Japan in the first on Wednesday.
In the final men’s playoff on Thursday, Xu Xiaoming’s China defeated Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi’s Japan 9-4.
Xu will be making his third trip to the Olympics, and his first as skip, after competing under Wang Fengchun in Vancouver in 2010 and Liu Rui in Sochi in 2014.
“We’re very excited. We’ve had to work so hard this week. We’ve had to come back extremely tough from two losses and fight for that win,” the 41-year-old said.
China were beaten 9-4 in the first playoff match on Wednesday by the Daniel Casper-led U.S. team.
The curling tournament at the Winter Olympics will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo from February 4-22.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Nashik, India; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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