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Perfect confusion of feelings.

The last day of Round Robin meant two games for us. Germany at 2pm and then Scotland at 7pm. We knew that if we wanted to finish better than the last World Championships (9th place) we had to beat the Germans (Jentsch, formerly Driendl). The German team shone here with some good performances, especially a close win with the last stone against China. They are our rivals on the CCT circuit, we know them well and play them often. We didn't win the last stone advantage for the first end in practice, but the opening belonged to us and we took a narrow lead pretty quickly. We didn't get the last stone advantage until almost halfway through the game. We waited a while for a good opportunity, but then it came, we scored for three and from then on there was no doubt who the winner was. The end of the game found us in a good game. So the first goal of the day was achieved.

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The last opponent in the regular part of the competition was Team Scotland (Muirhead), bronze from the 2014 Olympics, bronze from the 2016 European Championships. We have a negative record against them, but the match showed no signs of disproportionate respect. An even match was escalated at the end by a double by the Czechs in the seventh end, after which the Scots levelled the score with a single. In the ninth end, Anna had to throw a famous draw to prevent a double from the Scots. Skotek coach Glen Howard and I looked at each other and nodded our heads in approval. "I wouldn't dare," I said, Glen replied, "Me neither." In the tenth end, we got out of the problem created by the placement of the two Scottish stones, which meant a spaced deuce, by playing guards instead of freezes the Scots got nervous and their mistake gave us a chance for an extra end. Skip Skotek, however, played an excellent come around with her first stone and we, attempting to eject that stone, tapped the guard and bid a deuce to win. Muirhead's last stone very narrowly knocked out our stone, which was second in the circles at that point, and thus counted a stone that just crossed the circles. So we lost in the closest possible way.

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We finish seventh at the 2017 World Championships. It's the best women's finish ever in the history of Czech curling. It confirms the position of the fourth best European team at the European Championships. We were not far from the possibility of fighting directly for the Olympics, which would certainly be beyond objective expectations, but now that it's there, there is of course a little bit of disappointment. But it has to be said that the preliminary calculations have been confirmed and we would have to finish second to go direct, and that is beyond us at the moment. That's why satisfaction with the performance and the position will definitely prevail. Personally, I have to say that I feel very proud to be the coach of this great team. Anna, Bětka, Terka, Klára and Ežen are currently the jewels of Czech curling. They have shown their fighting spirit, resilience, sporting heart and sense of fair play and team cohesion. The World Championships are in the past for us and our thoughts are starting to turn to the Olympic qualification tournament.