Camera Courtesy of Voth's Countrywide Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1

The defending champions are making up for a slow start at the Ford World Women's Curling Championships in Swift Current, with another big win in Draw 14 last night.

Team China beat the Russians 9-7 in 11 ends.  The Chinese scored one in the tenth end to send it to extras, and then stole two in the eleventh end to win the match.

This team went 0-3 to start the event, and have won five of their last six games to get within striking distance of the playoffs.  Chinese skip Bingyu Wang credits the rally to teamwork and a positive attitude.

Other Draw 13 action had Denmark pounding Latvia 13-1 in six ends.  The Danes were up 9-0 after three ends in that game.  Germany beat Japan 7-5, and Eve Muirhead and Scotland beat the USA 7-4 to move into a tie for first place with Jennifer Jones and Team Canada, who had suffered their first loss Wednesday afternoon.

This sets up what should be an epic showdown between Scotland and Canada in the final round-robin draw Thursday night.  It is expected to be a first-place showdown with a preview of the 1 vs 2 page playoff game, and maybe a preview of Sunday's gold medal final.

They have a game to go beforehand as they each take on Russia.  Canada plays them this morning, and the Scots will have their turn this afternoon.

Other Draw 15 games have the USA taking on Sweden, Latvia battling Switzerland, and Japan playing against Norway.  It starts at 8:30am Thursday  from the Credit Union iplex.