First-place Einarson eyes semifinal berth at women's curling worlds after 8th win

Canada's Kerri Einarson closed in on a playoff berth at the women's world curling championship with an 8-3 win Thursday morning over South Korea in Calgary.

Einarson kept pace with Switzerland's Xenia Schwaller atop the standings. Both countries were 8-1.

The top six teams in the 13-country field at the conclusion of pool play Friday advance to the playoffs.

The top two gain direct entry to Saturday's semifinals. The remaining four square off earlier that day to join them. The medal games are Sunday.

"It's easier if you get into that semifinal, but we don't want to look too far ahead and just don't need to put any more added pressure on ourselves," Einarson said.

Japan (6-2), South Korea and Sweden (6-3), China and Turkey (5-4) and Italy (4-5) were also jockeying for berths.

Denmark and Scotland were 3-6, Norway 2-7 and Australia and the United States 1-8.

The Swiss doubled Norway 8-4, China defeated Turkey 10-5, and Italy was an 8-1 winner over Denmark in the morning draw.

Einarson's team out of Manitoba's Gimli Curling Club played one of its most complete games of the tournament in a gruelling part of its schedule.

"I thought today was our best game as a whole, so we got to continue that going forward," the Canadian skip said.

Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Karlee Burgess were on their third straight day of split draws — playing in the morning and evening — which made for short sleeps.

The Canadians were to face Norway on Thursday night. They cap off pool play against Australia in the afternoon and Japan in the evening Friday.

Despite another tight turnaround, both Sweeting and Burgess logged extra practice immediately after Wednesday night's win over Scotland.

Sweeting was annoyed when she completely missed back-to-back double takeout attempts against the Scots.