The Estonian women’s curling team narrowly missed out on reaching the quarterfinals at the World Cup stage held in Norway at the weekend.
Coached by top Norwegian curler Steffen Walstad, Estonia is preparing for the upcoming European Championships and Winter Olympics qualification in December.
The team is made up of Erika Tuvike, Heili Grossmann, Liisa Turmann, and captain Kerli Laidsalu.
This time in Oslo, the team lost in the decisive game with the last throw after starting off with a 9:5 win over Sweden and a 6:3 victory over Austria.
In the next two matches, however, Estonia went down 7:2 to hosts Norway, then faced Switzerland in the crunch game.
The Estonian team started strongly against the Swiss and after the fourth end were in the lead 4:1. After the break the Swiss managed to turn things around, however, going 6:4 up after the sixth end.
In the seventh end Estonia had the last stone advantage, yet the Swiss stone turned out to be closer to the center, allowing them to nab the winning point for a 7:4 win. The Estonian team could draw some consolation from the fact that Switzerland were the eventual winners of the stage.
However the team fell short of qualification to the finals by an agonizing 3.5 centimeters: With two wins and two losses, advancement from the group was determined by draw shot statistics.
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