Defending champion Niklas Edin of Sweden is into the A Final of the Nutrien Ag Solutions Western Showdown with two wins on the opening day of the men's triple-knockout event at the Swift Current Curling Club.

The six-time World Champions and defending Olympic gold medallists defeated Saskatoon's Steve Laycock 5-2 in their opening game, and rallied to pick up a 6-5 win over Japan's Riku Yanagisawa to earn a spot in the first A Qualifier. Edin trailed 5-2 after six ends but rallied with a deuce in the seventh and a steal of two in the eighth to take the victory.

Edin will face BC's Catlin Schneider in one of the A Final games this afternoon with Ontario's Sam Mooibroek facing Switzerland's Michael Brunner in the other, with the winners moving straight to Saturday's quarter-finals. Laycock, with Swift Current's Shaun Meachem and Chris Haichert on the team, faces Korea's Jongduk Park in a B Event game this morning.

On the women’s side, Eun ji Gim, Eunjung Kim, Satusuki Fujisawa and Robyn Silvernagle all have 2-0 records after two days of round-robin play. Silvernagle, with Kelly Schafer playing third, defeated Minnesota's Tabitha Peterson 7-4 in their only game of the day on Thursday. Defending women's champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland defeated Moose Jaw's Penny Barker 10-1 in the opening game for both teams.

Five draws are set for Friday and Saturday with the men's quarterfinals on Saturday evening at 9:00pm and the women's quarterfinals, semifinals and finals set for Sunday.