Latvia's women's curling team wins first European Championship bronze
Latvia's women's curling team won its first European Championship medal, bronze, in Ostrava, Czechia, beating Scotland 8-6. Sweden took the title.
Latvia's women's curling team on Sunday won bronze at the European Curling Championships in Ostrava, Czechia, claiming its first medal at the event. The tournament features the continent's 12 best women's and 12 best men's teams. In the third-place game, the team led by skip (team captain) Evelīna Barone beat Scotland 8-6.
How the game unfolded
After the first three ends (playing periods in curling), the Latvians led 5-1. In the fourth end Scotland scored three points, cutting the gap to one. Latvia collected three points across the fifth and sixth ends to make it 8-4. Scotland took two in the seventh end, but the result remained in Latvia's favour. Sweden became European champion, beating Switzerland 7-2 in the final.
The road to the medal
Latvia, ranked 22nd in the world, played in Group A and finished second. The team lost 5-3 to Germany...
Correction: it lost 3-5 to Germany, beat Norway 8-4, the Czech Republic 11-4 and Italy 8-6, and lost 2-8 to world number one Switzerland. In Saturday's semifinal the Latvians lost 3-7 to Sweden, which won all five of its Group B games. In the other semifinal Switzerland beat Scotland 4-3.
Latvia secured its place among Europe's elite last year by winning the B Division European Championship. This season, before the championship, the team played five warm-up tournaments: Riga Open (second place) and Riga International Curling Challenge (first) in Riga, the Oslo Cup in Norway (third), Tallinn Ladies Challenger in Tallinn (fourth) and WCT Prague Ladies International in Prague (win).
Championship format
The field has been expanded this year from 10 to 12 teams. In each event the teams were split into two groups, playing five games each and eight ends instead of the usual ten. The top two from each group advanced to the semifinals. Latvia did not qualify for the men's tournament.
The Latvian team consists of Evelīna Barone, Rēzija Ieviņa, Katrīna Gaidule, Daina Barone and Betija Gulbe, with David Ramsay as coach.
