The 2011 World Wheelchair Curling Qualification event gets underway on Saturday at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.

Nine wheelchair curling teams from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Slovakia and Switzerland are set to compete in the event which will run from 5 to 10 November and will see two teams qualifying for the final places at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2012 in Chuncheon City, South Korea next February.

It is the second year in a row that the qualification event will be staged at the Kisakallio Sports Institute.

“We are delighted to be returning to Finland for this event,” said World Curling Federation President Kate Caithness, “our Member Association, the Finnish Curling Association, the Finnish Paralympic Committee and the team from Kisakallio proved last year that they have the expertise and superb purpose-built facilities to organise a top class World Wheelchair Curling event.”

Of the nine teams taking part there are five led by skips with Paralympic Winter Games appearances to their names: Denmark (Kenneth Orbaek) - Turin 2006 and Germany (Jens Jager), Italy (Andrea Tabanelli, also in Turin), Japan (Yoji Nakajima) and Switzerland (Manfred Bolliger) – Vancouver 2010.

Radek Musilek returns to skip the Czech’s after their 10th place finish on home soil at the World Wheelchair Curling Championships 2011 in Prague which sent them back to the qualification event. For the Latvian’s, skipped by Aleksandrs Dimbovkis, it is only their second year of competing at international level in Wheelchair Curling. Slovakia’s Radoslav Duris and his team play their third qualification event after finishing 6th last year.

With a chance to go to the Worlds in South Korea, competition is fierce for the top two places. Speaking ahead of the event Finland’s Vesa Hellman said his team had been practising hard and had their sights set on being in the top four at the end of the round-robin.

The event starts on Saturday afternoon, with the nine teams playing in a round-robin through to Wednesday 9 November. The top four teams at the end of the round-robin will meet in the playoff games for the two qualifying places for the World Championship on Thursday the 10th.

The World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2012 will take place at the Uiam Ice Rink, Chuncheon City, South Korea, from 18-25 February. Canada, Scotland, Norway, Russia, China, Korea, USA and Sweden have already qualified for this event based on the final ranking at the 2011 event. The 2012 World Championships will be the second opportunity for nations to gather qualification points for the Wheelchair Curling Competition at the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

Final Standings
		Team
1		Slovakia	Q
2		Italy	Q
3		Finland	6	5
4		Germany	5	5
5		Denmark	4	5
6		Switzerland	4	5
7		Czech Rep.	3	5
8		Japan	3	5
9		Latvia	2	6

- Day by Day - Team's -

05.11.2011 (Saturday)
Day 1:

Draw 1. 16:00
A Switzerland - Japan 7-6
B Finland - Latvia 3-7
C Denmark - Slovakia 4-11
D Czech Rep. - Germany 4-7

The World Wheelchair Curling Qualification 2011 got underway on Saturday at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland with wins for Germany, Latvia, Slovakia and Switzerland on the first day.

The nine teams taking part in the event, which will see two teams qualifying for the final places at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2012, were able to get a feel for the ice in training sessions earlier in the day before the first session of round-robin play in the afternoon.

Slovakia won their game against Denmark 11-4 and Switzerland had a win against Japan 7-6. Italy had a bye and play their first game on Sunday.

Speaking after their 7-4 win against the Czech Republic, German coach Bernd Weiser said: “The team is obviously extremely happy about the win. If we're able to maintain this level of play, we have a good chance to win also tomorrow against Latvia. The team is very impressed with the setup and organisation of the event. The ice is also "sehr gut" so the team is also happy with that.”

The German team is a new line up. While Skip Jens Jager and third Caren Totzauer have been competing at international level for several years, the other members of the team are relatively new to the sport of wheelchair curling.

Latvia also got off to a good start beating Finland 7-3. It was Latvia’s first ever win in international competition. Latvia’s wheelchair curling team only started competing at international level last year. Vice Skip Ojars Briedis was pleased that the championship had got off to such a good start. He added that it was proof that their preparations for this event had gone well.

The event runs until 10 November. The two teams that qualify will head for Chuncheon City, South Korea where the 2012 World Wheelchair Curling Championship will be staged next February.

06.11.2011 (Sunday)
Day 2:

Draw 2. 10:30
A Germany - Latvia 9-5
B Slovakia - Italy 2-9
C Switzerland - Czech Rep. 7-6
D Denmark - Finland 1-14

Draw 3, 16:30
A Czech Rep. - Finland 8-1
B Japan - Germany 0-12
C Latvia - Italy 4-10
D Slovakia - Switzerland 6-10

Germany and Switzerland remain unbeaten with three wins apiece after the second day of play at the World Wheelchair Curling Qualification event at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.

In the morning, the Germans beat Latvia 9-5 before going on to overwhelm the Japanese 12-0 in the afternoon session. The Swiss had wins against the Czech Republic (7-6) and Slovakia (10-6).

"We were really surprised by how strong a team Latvia was,” said German Skip Jens Jager after that game, “we had never played against Latvia before and they are very precise and good players. I was looking forward to playing against them when I saw their name in the event schedule. It is always a great feeling when the wheelchair curling family grows and grows."

Latvia only began Wheelchair Curling at international level last year.

Italy is also on an unbeaten record, playing their first games on Sunday and beating Slovakia 9-2 and then Latvia 10-4.

Hosts Finland had their first win of the event in the morning session against Denmark – a big score - 14-1.

"It was like having a different team on the ice,” explained Finnish lead Tuomo Aarnikka after having lost to Latvia in their opening game on Saturday. “We had a great start to the game. we stole five points in the second end and after that we managed to keep the game simple for us and the opposition was the one who had to keep taking the risks."

But it was the Finns who ended up having to take the risks in the afternoon session as the Czechs fought back after their narrow loss to the Swiss and stole their way to an 8-1 win.

Japan and Denmark had byes on Sunday.

07.11.2011 (Monday)
Day 3:

Draw 4. 10:30
A Italy - Switzerland 5-3
B Denmark - Czech Rep. 13-5
C Finland - Germany 7-4
D Japan - Latvia 6-10

Draw 5, 14:30
A Latvia - Denmark 3-15
B Switzerland - Finland 6-8
C Slovakia - Japan 3-9
D Germany - Italy 1-11

Italy is the only team to remain unbeaten after the third day of play at the qualification event for the 2012 World Wheelchair Curling Championship at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.

Both the original front runners at the event, Germany and Switzerland, were knocked back by the Italians and Finns on Monday. In the morning session, the Italians beat the Swiss 5-3, then went on to win their afternoon game against Germany 11-1.

Hosts Finland, who had a mixed start to the event, found winning form again, beating Germany 7-4 and then going on to win against Switzerland 8-6.

Italian coach Giulio Regli was delighted with his team’s performance but cautioned that there were still four games of the round-robin to go and stressed that the Italian team had found themselves in this position only a year ago.

At the 2010 qualification event, the Italians made the playoff stage of the event but failed to secure one of the two spots for the worlds. Regli added there was still a lot to play for and that his team had to keep focussed.

Denmark had their first wins of the event with two high scoring games: 13-5 against the Czechs and 15-3 against the Latvians.

Latvia beat Japan 10-6, before Japan recorded their first win of the event against Slovakia 9-3 in the afternoon session. Slovakia and the Czechs each had a bye on Monday.

08.11.2011 (Tuesday)
Day 4:

Draw 6. 10:30
A Finland - Slovakia 6-7
B Italy - Japan 6-8
C Czech Rep. - Latvia 7-4
D Switzerland - Denmark 5-6

Draw 7, 14:30
A Japan - Czech Rep. 4-5
B Germany - Denmark 4-9
C Italy - Finland 6-5
D Latvia - Slovakia 5-6

Competition has intensified at the qualification event for the 2012 World Wheelchair Curling Championship at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland. With one day of round-robin play left, 8 of the 9 competing teams are still in with a chance of making the playoffs on Thursday.

After seven rounds no team remains unbeaten. Italy had a very strong start to the event with four consecutive wins, but they suffered their first loss on Wednesday morning against Japan. After an extremely tight game, Italy narrowly edged Finland 6-5 to keep them in the lead following the afternoon draw.

The Japanese team had a slow start to the event with three losses but they have now found a fighting spirit and have won their last two games. In the evening draw, they played against Czech Republic, narrowly losing out 5-4 in a close encounter.

Ahead of their game against the Czech’s, Kaneko Emi from the Japanese Curling Association said: “The team was feeling down after losing our first three games but all the other teams and our own technical staff have been very supportive. After two wins the team is feeling much more positive and happy now and hopefully we can continue that in our final games. We have a new team this year with two new players, both of whom bring a lot of positive energy to the group.”

There will be all to play for in Wednesday morning's session as the Danes take on table toppers Italy, the Czechs play Slovakia, Switzerland meets the Germans and Finland plays their final game against Japan.

09.11.2011 (Wednesday)
Day 5:

Draw 8. 09:00
A Denmark - Italy 4-8
B Czech Rep. - Slovakia 4-8
C Germany - Switzerland 6-3
D Finland - Japan 8-5

Draw 9, 14:30
A Slovakia - Germany 7-5
B Latvia - Switzerland 4-9
C Japan - Denmark 6-5
D Italy - Czech Rep. 7-1

Draw 10, 19:00
A Finland - Switzerland 7-3
D Denmark - Germany 5-7

Italy and Slovakia are through to the play-off stages and will be joined by Finland and Germany following a close battle in Wednesday night’s tie-breakers in the final day of the Round-Robin at the 2012 World Wheelchair Curling Championship Qualification event at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.

Italy followed on from their strong start, beating Denmark 8-4 in the morning game, with the Czech Republic losing to the Slovaks by the same scoreline. Germany beat Switzerland 6-3 while home team Finland beat Japan 8-5.

Evening tie-breakers were forced following a competitive afternoon of curling, which saw Slovakia continue their fine run of form by beating Germany 7-5 to finish second place in the standings. Latvia will go home disappointed after ending their qualification campaign with loss to Switzerland 4-9, while in the tightest game of the afternoon, Japan narrowly edged Denmark 6-5 in an extra end.

Having only started competing at this level of international wheelchair curling three years ago, Slovakian Coach, Frantisek Pitoňák, is delighted with his team’s performance. He said: “It’s been a real pleasure to win all of these games but there’s still everything to play for. We’ve enjoyed this event and may the best team win!”

In the evening tie-breakers, Finland secured victory against Switzerland, 7-3, while close friends Germany beat Denmark 7-5 to make it through to the final play-offs which begin at 10:30am local time (EET) on Thursday morning.

10.11.2011 (Thursday)
Day 6:

Draw 11. 10:30
B Finland - Germany 13-2
C Slovakia - Italy 10-9

Draw 11, 16:30
D Finland - Italy 5-6

Italy and Slovakia are through to the 2012 World Wheelchair Curling Championship after a dramatic final day of play at the World Wheelchair Qualification event in the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.

After losing the 1v2 play-off game 10-9 in the morning against Slovakia, Italy went on to beat hosts Finland 6-5 in an extra end in the final play-off game and secured their place at the World Championship next February in South Korea.

Italian Skip, Andrea Tabanelli, was relieved to make it to the Championships. He said: “I was upset this morning, due to a mistake I made with my last stone, I lost us the game. We were very lucky to have a second chance and play again this afternoon. I am delighted that we won. This win is for my team, who are fantastic and have managed to form a strong bond.”

Following their victory on Thursday morning, Slovak Skip Radoslav Duriš, said: “It’s very impressive, it’s a very big surprise. There were highs and lows in this game for both teams but in each end we thought we could do it. The win for us is amazing.

“We lost three games in a row in the middle of this event and at that point we said ‘Houston we have a problem!’ but since then we have won every game. It was a dream for us to go to Korea – and now we are going.”

In the 3v4 play-off in the morning, Finland won 13-2 against a German team who lost skip, Jens Jäger, to a hand injury in their final game on Wednesday evening. Caren Totzauer moved up to Skip.

On losing their game against Italy, Finnish Skip, Vesa Hellman, remained upbeat. He said: “We’ll try again next year. We showed massive improvement this year, so we will be coming to next year’s competition with a completely different mindset. After a couple of days, I’m sure we’ll be able to enjoy this achievement too, even though we didn’t manage to achieve the spot at the worlds.”

- Czech Republic

- Denmark

- Germany

- Finland

- Italy

- Japan

- Latvia

- Switzerland

- Slovakia