Canada off to unbeaten start at mixed doubles curling world championship
Crocker and Muyres head into last three round-robin games looking to improve communication
It's about as good a start as Canada's Laura Crocker and Kirk Muyres could have imagined: a 12-0 win over Ireland to begin the mixed doubles curling world championship.
Since then, the duo hasn't slowed down. Crocker and Muyres are rolling along in Sweden, sitting atop the Group E standings (tied with South Korea) at 4-0.
But as easy as it has seemed so far, the Canadians know they need to be a lot better as they head into the last three games of group play.
"Being 4-0 is nice, but we know we haven't played even close to our best yet," Crocker said. "We were a little sharper [Monday] morning against Guyana and are feeling good taking that forward into our last few round-robin games."
The Canadians defeated Guyana 9-3. But just a day earlier, against Brazil, Crocker and Muyres needed to score three in the final end to win the game after being down 5-4. They would go on to win 7-5, but it was far too close for their liking.
"We were a little sloppy at the beginning of a few games, but really got solid when we needed to and now our last game got back to really good precision," Muyres said.
There are 40 teams competing for this year's mixed doubles world title. The tournament has been held 10 times previously, and Canada has never won it.
Switzerland, which owns six titles, is tied with Americans Sarah Anderson and Korey Dropkin atop the Group A standings, both with 3-0 records heading into Tuesday's play.
Canada's next game is against the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
After that, the Canadians will finish against Germany and then South Korea in a game that will likely determine first place in the pool.
Still learning
This team of Muyres and Crocker is still relatively new. They only came together just a few weeks before the national mixed doubles championship.
"If we keep focusing on our rock placement and fall back on our communication, we should continue to raise the bar," Crocker said.
Mixed doubles teams have talked at length about the importance of communication and how crucial it is in the new, fast-paced discipline — amplified by the fact there are only 22 minutes to play the game. Time is at a premium and decisions need to be made quickly.
"We obviously want to win this thing, but to do that we just need that extra layer of precision and we have started to get that the past three games," Muyres said. "Hopefully we can build on that as we go into the last few round-robin games."
The top 16 teams after the round robin advance to this weekend's playoff round. The gold-medal game will be played Saturday.
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