One step away from medals: the Russian women's curling team reached the semifinals of the world championship

The round robin tournament ended at the Women's World Curling Championship.

The Russian national team won 11 victories in 13 matches and took second place, repeating their best result in history.

Alina Kovaleva's team went directly to the semifinals and qualified for the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.

Even on the first days of the world championship in Calgary, it was clear that the Russian team was perfectly prepared and would strive to return to the podium after three years.

Druzhina Kovalevoy won five matches in a row at the start and took the lead in the standings.

The winning streak continued on the fourth day of the competition.

The Russians met with the Danish national team led by Madeleine Dupont, a relative of the former curling player Victoria Moiseeva, who won the bronze medal of the 2018 World Cup.

The match turned out to be very tense - according to the results of the first half, the score was equal and amounted to 4: 4.

In the next four ends, the teams scored one more point.

In the tenth end, the Russians had the right to the last throw, and Kovaleva was able to bring the two points needed to win.

“We knew that the match would be equal.

The girls played very well.

We knew we needed to stay focused.

It is good that we did not lose concentration and energy, so we were able to hold out until the end, ”said Galina Arsenkina, number two of the national team, after the game.

The next match with Japan turned out to be just as difficult.

Both teams could not score more than two points in one attempt, and after the eighth end, the Russians had a very modest advantage of 4: 3.

After that, the skip of rivals Sayaka Yoshimura took advantage of the uncomfortable position of the Russians and scored two points.

Fortunately, Kovaleva found a worthy answer - she also scored two points with the last throw.

By that time, the Russian national team remained the only undefeated team - in a parallel match, the reigning world champions from Switzerland suffered their first defeat from Sweden.

The next victory over China could no longer surprise anyone. The Russians beat the hostesses of the next Olympics with a score of 8: 4, earning points in two ends with the last throw of their rivals. But then a difficult test awaited them in the face of the Swedish national team - the champions of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

The Russian team started the match with dignity, gaining a point in the first end and stealing two in the second. But the Swedes with the skip Anna Hasselborg managed to level the score in the next two rounds. In the fifth end, the Russians performed a real miracle - they scored five points at once with a spectacular throw, knocking out other people's stones from the house. The Scandinavians also found a worthy answer to this - in the next attempt they earned four points. The loss of such a tangible advantage did not affect the Russian team, and soon they took the lead with a difference of three points. The Swedes had three more ends to recoup, but they did not succeed, and the Russian team won for the ninth victory in a row.

Only on the sixth day the incredible series of domestic curlers was interrupted.

They were stopped by a modest Czech team, which had previously won only two matches.

Throughout the meeting, the score was either equal or in favor of the Russians, but in the tenth end, Czech Anna Kubeshkova managed to earn three points and win with a score of 7: 5.

But for the Russians, the bitterness of the first defeat was sweetened by good news - they could no longer drop below the sixth place in the standings and made it to the playoffs.

In the morning of the next day, the Russian national team was waiting for a match with the formidable team of Switzerland, which claimed the first place.

Although Silvana Tirinzoni's team lost in one game, they won convincing victories in the rest, and in a meeting with Denmark they achieved a unique achievement - the Swiss scored the maximum eight points in one end.

Nobody has ever achieved this at the world championships.

The Swiss team was immediately surprised by scoring a point in the first end, in which the Russians had the right to the last shot.

Then they only increased the gap and led by the tenth end with a score of 8: 6.

In the last round, Kovaleva's team failed to create a good attacking position, and the match ended ahead of schedule.

But in the evening, in a similar situation, the Russians did not give up.

They met with the Scottish national team, which needs to win to enter the playoffs.

In this match, the leader was replaced six times, and at the last moment it turned out to be the Russian team.

In their final round-robin match, the Kovaleva squad played with the USA and pleased themselves with a rather easy victory - at the very beginning the girls scored three points, and then for five consecutive ends did not give their rivals a chance to replenish their account.

This victory was 11th for the Russians and briefly allowed them to return to first place in the standings, until the Swiss played all their matches and seized the lead again.

Only in 2017, the Russian national team was second at the preliminary stage, but then there were fewer participants in the World Championship, and eight won matches were enough for the same result.

The semi-final with the participation of the Russian team will take place on May 8 in the evening local time or in the morning of the 9th Moscow time.

The rivals will be determined in the match between the national teams of Sweden and Canada - both of them in Calgary were already inferior to the squad of Kovaleva.