Russia made history as they beat Sweden to reach the World Women’s Curling Championship final for the first time.
Taking to the ice for Saturday evening’s sole semi-final at the Capital Gymnasium in Beijing, China, Russia ran out 9-3 winners to set up a gold-medal clash with Canada.
They were in charge from the start with skip Anna Sidorova opening the scoring in the first end, hitting out a Swedish stone to score two points.
The match was levelled at 3-3 after the fifth end when Sweden skip Anna Hasselborg tapped out a Russian stone to score two.
But Sidorova replied in the seventh, playing a tap-back to score three points and take a 6-3 lead.
And when Hasselborg could only remove one Russian stone with her final take-out in the eighth, leaving three other Russia stones lying, to give up a steal of three, the Swedes conceded.
Sidorova said: “I still can’t believe it. Coming second in the round-robin made history for our team, and I’m so proud that we can now represent Russia in the final.
“It’s only one year to the Olympic Games and it’s been a really rough year for my team, so we needed that win to believe in ourselves. I’m so proud of the performance my team showed today.”
Russia will take on China in Sunday’s final with Sweden meanwhile facing off against Scotland.
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