Canada’s Rachel Homan and Brad Gushue carried unbeaten records into Thursday at the Pan Continental curling championship and are assured semi-final berths.
Homan thumped Mexico 10-1 in just six ends on Wednesday evening after also making quick work of South Korea in an earlier 8-2 decision that lasted six ends.
Gushue downed Australia 13-8 in the lone men’s draw.
Ottawa’s Homan and Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., were both 6-0 with one game remaining in their preliminary rounds Thursday.
Gushue finishes against China’s Xiaoming Xu (4-2) and Homan meets Japan’s Miyu Ueno in a battle of undefeated teams.
The men’s semi-finals are Thursday evening and the women’s Friday morning. The gold-medal games are Saturday at the Gary Moe Auto Sportsplex in Lacombe, Alta.
The top four men’s and women’s teams in the Pan Continental qualify for the 2025 world championships, although Canada has an automatic berth in the men’s championship in Moose Jaw, Sask., as the host country.
Homan’s alternate Rachel Brown got into the game against Mexico’s Adriana Camarena for her first ice time in the event and played third to give Tracy Fleury the night off.
“It’s not every day you get to play third for Rachel Homan,” said Brown, who threw third stones for the first time in her career.
“It was really, really fun. I would have liked to play a little bit better, but the girls were dialled. They played so well.”
South Korea’s Eunji Gim (4-2) was also playoff bound with the fourth women’s playoff team still to be determined Thursday.
In other women’s games Wednesday evening, Japan downed South Korea 6-4, the U.S. hammered Chinese Taipei 19-0 and China defeated New Zealand 9-4.
Gushue is attempting a Pan Continental hat trick after winning the first two tournaments.
Reigning women’s world champion Homan is representing Canada for the first time in the regional championship.
A bonus for Gushue, vice-skip Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker was South Korea’s 5-4 win over China dropped the latter to a record of 4-2, which means Gushue will be the playoffs’ top seed with choice of stones throughout the playoffs.
“It’s always nice to go into the playoffs that way,” said Gushue’s coach Jeff Hoffart.
Joining Gushue in the men’s final four will be John Shuster of the U.S. (5-1) and Japan’s Shinya Abe and China (4-2).
The U.S. downed Chinese Taipei 9-3 and Japan dominated New Zealand 9-1 in other men’s games Wednesday afternoon.
Bottcher, a long-time skip, is playing his first event for Gushue after the latter fired second E.J. Harnden earlier this month.