The men did it!
The Czech Republic's tie-break with Denmark in the men's section of the World Championship was the match of the year for the Czech players. Klíma, Mokriš, Černovský and Splavec took the field yesterday at 19.00 for the game that was to decide who will go directly to Sweden for the World Championship next year and who will have to play in the Tarnby qualifier. The Czechs started confidently and with a neatly played double they indicated their legitimate ambitions. However, in the second end we didn't play a freeze (maybe a run back was better) on a well hidden Danish stone behind the corner guard. So the Danes calmly returned the deuce and a tug-of-war began, in which Jakub spiced up the atmosphere with his "break dance" fall and at the very end Christopher with his "full" fall while escaping to time-out. Surprisingly and unintentionally, we let the Danes get a one in the ninth end and needed a two to win the tenth. Danish skip Nergaard (18 years old) didn't play tactically well in the opening and gave us the chance to settle the score we needed. We probably already had a deuce before Luke's last draw, but the Danes still let us play the stone. Everything turned out well. For the first time in the history of Czech curling, we have two teams directly qualified for the next World Championships. Thanks to the team, but also to Karel Klíma, who endured the second half of the tournament and kept his fingers crossed from his hotel room. Thanks to Kryštof for the energy he put into the team and thanks also to David, a top caterer and great partner. Czech curling is having its best season yet, so let's keep it up! photo: men after successful tie-break