CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – The Japanese women’s curling team was eliminated from semifinal contention at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday after suffering its sixth loss of the tournament, 8-6 to Italy.
With just one win at the tournament so far, Fortius, the Hokkaido-based team that won the right to represent Japan, failed in its bid to win the nation its third straight women’s curling medal.
“I’m very frustrated,” third Kaho Onodera said after the match. “We’ve had several close losses recently, and I feel that unless we improve our shot accuracy a bit more, it will be difficult to finish games off and secure wins.”
Japan shook up its lineup, bringing in alternate Mina Kobayashi to play as vice-skip and second, with the 23-year-old going on to lead the team with 92 percent draw-shot accuracy.
Kobayashi said after the loss that she and her teammates now have nothing to lose.
“At this point, all we can do is go for it,” she said.
Skip Sayaka Yoshimura continued her struggles on the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium ice, which she said was “completely different from yesterday.”
“There was more frost, the stones curled more and it was overall heavier ice compared to yesterday, so I personally struggled a bit,” said Yoshimura, who ranks second from last among fourths in shot success percentage.
“We only have two matches left on the Olympic stage, so we want to go all out and play with everything we have.”
AloJapan.com