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Thrilling finale - Wetzikon 2017.

photo - happy players just after the final match

rn

From 1:30 onwards, Wetzikon was playing for third place (Feltscher vs. Stern), but above all for the win. Kubeskova, Baudysova, Pliskova and Svatonova (alt. Kolchevska) challenged the team of Anna Sidorova from Russia. The advantage for the first end was on the side of the Russians. This was decided by the better DSC of the opponents after the regular part. The Russians have been sailing through the competition quite smoothly so far. With the exception of one close result, they always declined their opponents before the end of the match, so that the match often ended after the sixth or seventh end. This probably saved them some energy. The Czechs had a quicker win over the Swiss in the semi-finals, but otherwise most of our matches were played to the end. For us it was the sixth match in two days. The beginning was even (in the second end the Russian skip prevented a two or three with a 100% freeze), but in the third end the Russians played for two and in the next end we only played for one. The fifth end was important for the further development. We created a lot of pressure with accurate play and Sidorova and her last stone faced the almost impossible task of scoring against a nicely constructed five. With a decent attempt she corrected the threat to our three and the match started to develop in our favour. In the sixth end, Sidorova had to play a precise draw against the three and this time the Russians made up for it. In the seventh end we created a promising position, but after an error we lost it and in the end we were happy with one. Some nervous play in the eighth end resulted in a deuce from the Russians and therefore an extra end. After a lot of thought by Sidorova's team, the Russians bet on their own stone, which was about 50 cm from the centre of the rings, played guard and waited to see what the Czechs would say. A wonderful interplay between the scorers and Anna Kubeskova brought our stone some ten centimeters closer to the center! Anna, Bětka, Terka, Klára and Ežen are the champions of Wetzikon 2017. A significant success for Czech curling and great joy.