Homan soars to 5-1 at women's curling worlds, beating U.S. and Turkey
Canada in 2nd-place tie midway through robin-robin play in South Korea
Canada's Rachel Homan won both of her games Tuesday to move into a second-place tie with host South Korea at the world women's curling championship in South Korea.
The Ottawa-based rink of Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes posted an 8-4 victory over American Tabitha Peterson before picking up an 8-3 win over Turkey's Dilsat Yildiz.
Canada, which is 5-1 after 11 draws, shot an event-high 93 per cent as a team in the opener.
"It felt like we put together everything we learned from all the previous games and came out there confident knowing what the sheet was going to do, what the rocks were doing," Wilkes said.
WATCH | Canadian women down Turkey 8-3 at curling worlds:
In the late draw at Uijeongbu Arena, Canada put the game away in the eighth end when Homan played a hit-and-roll to score three.
"We're just trying to communicate and stick with each other because it's a long week and a lot of games," Homan said.
Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni beat Italy's Stefania Constantini 8-5 to improve to 7-0. The unbeaten Swiss skip defeated South Korea's Eunji Gim 9-6 earlier in the day.
Denmark's Madeleine Dupont and Sweden's Anna Hasselborg were tied for fourth place at 4-2.
Homan's draw weight has been solid throughout the competition. She had a 92 per cent draw efficiency and was at 88 per cent on all draws at the round-robin's midway point.
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"I have huge confidence in [Emma and Sarah] being able to put it on the right spot and have really good communication," Homan said. "It's been great. They're amazing sweepers and I'm lucky to play with them."
South Korea will play the defending champion Canadians on Wednesday. Homan will take on Norway's Marianne Roervik (4-3) later in the day.
China's Rui Wang was tied with the United States at 3-3. Scotland's Sophie Jackson was 3-4 and Japan's Sayaka Yoshimura was 3-5.
Italy had a 2-5 mark while Turkey and Lithuania's Virginija Paulauskaite remained winless at 0-7.
The top six teams in the 13-team field will qualify for knockout play starting Saturday. Medal games are scheduled for Sunday.
Homan won gold at the 2024 world playdowns in Sydney, N.S.
WATCH | Homan on being mic'd up while curling:
