Gushue downs Chinese rink in preparation for Pan Continental curling semifinal

Canada's Brad Gushue tuned up for the playoffs Thursday by posting a 7-4 victory over China's Xiaoming Xu at the Pan Continental curling championship in Lacombe, Alta.

Gushue, from St. John's, closed out the win by making a double-takeout for a single in the 10th end.

His team of vice Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker were unbeaten in round-robin play at 7-0. Canada will play Japan's Shinya Abe in the semifinals on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.

Japan (4-3) fell into fourth place after dropping an 8-2 decision to American John Shuster (6-1), who will meet Xu (4-3) in the other semifinal.

For the ‘W’! The double takeout is made to finish off a 7-4 win for Canada’s <a href="https://twitter.com/TeamGushue?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TeamGushue</a> over Canada! A perfect 7-0 round robin! Next up: semifinal tonight at 7 pm MT against Japan! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PCCC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PCCC</a> <a href="https://t.co/uW1JCq0m4T">pic.twitter.com/uW1JCq0m4T</a>

In other early games, New Zealand's Anton Hood dumped Taiwan's Ken Hsu 13-3 and South Korea's Jaebeom Lee outscored Australia's Hugh Millikin 9-7.

South Korea finished at 3-4 ahead of Australia and New Zealand at 2-5. Winless Taiwan (0-7) was relegated to the B division next year.

Nice double from the skipper and it forces China to draw for a single. Canada’s <a href="https://twitter.com/TeamGushue?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TeamGushue</a> takes a 6-4 lead and