Canada narrowly qualifies for playoffs at women's curling worlds despite late loss

Canada's Kerri Einarson closed her round-robin schedule with an 11-5 loss to Denmark's Madeleine Dupont on Friday but still managed to secure a playoff berth at the women's world curling championship in Sandviken, Sweden.

Her Manitoba-based rink of Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Briane Harris, which defeated Turkey's Dilsat Yildiz 10-4 earlier in the day, finished in third place at 7-5 and will face sixth-place Japan (7-5) on Saturday in a qualification match at the Goransson Arena.

The top six teams advanced to the playoffs, with three-time defending champion Switzerland (12-0) and Norway (8-4) getting byes to the semifinals as the top two teams.

Canada fell to Japan 6-5 in round-robin play on Thursday.

Sweden (7-5) and Italy (7-5) meet in the other qualification game.

After conceding to Denmark after eight ends, Canada locked up a spot in a qualification game a short time later when American Tabitha Peterson dropped a 10-6 decision to South Korea's Seungyoun Ha.

"We were going to have some anxious moments here waiting, but we knew there were a lot of scenarios here where we still make it through," Birchard said.

The Americans missed the cut at 6-6.

Qualification games and semifinals were scheduled for Saturday and medal games were on tap Sunday.

Einarson won bronze at last year's world playdowns in Prince George, B.C. Canada hasn't won gold at this competition since 2018 when Jennifer Jones was victorious in North Bay, Ont.