“Uzvara pār turnīra uzvarētāju Nīderlandi nelīdz,” Sportacentrs.com reported after the Latvian men’s curling team suffered three losses to open their world championship qualification campaign in Aberdeen.
Latvia finished the preliminary round with a tough run of results, dropping down to the world championship pre-qualification tournament despite securing a notable victory over group winner the Netherlands, according to Jauns.lv and Sportacentrs.com. The competition in Scotland featured 16 national teams split into two groups of eight for the round-robin stage.
The squad competing in Pool B included players such as Arnis Veidemanis, Roberts Reinis Buncis, Jānis Klīve, Aleksandrs Baranovskis, and Rihards Jeske, Sportacentrs.com reported. Entering the tournament ranked 27th in the world, the Latvian men faced challenging group opponents including Australia, ranked 18th, and New Zealand, ranked 14th, as well as the Philippines, ranked 19th, and India, ranked 38th, against whom the Latvian players had not previously played.
While the Latvian team was ranked sixth strongest in their subgroup, every match offered a chance to challenge higher-ranked teams, a fact proven by the women’s national team returning from the European Championships with bronze medals.
The tournament format required the top two teams from each group to advance directly to the playoff semifinals, while the seventh and eighth-place finishers in each pool were relegated to the pre-qualification division for the subsequent world championship cycle, Sportacentrs.com outlined. Latvia’s struggles in the round-robin matches left them outside the qualification bracket alongside the bottom-tier group finishers.
Play opened with matches scheduled across multiple draws leading up to the medal games on November 13, according to Sportacentrs.com. Pool A comprised Austria, Denmark, Spain, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Norway, and Turkey, while Pool B featured Australia, Belgium, India, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Slovenia. Semifinals were scheduled for November 12 at 21:00, while the decisive medal and qualification matches took place the following day, November 13, at 11:00 and 17:00.
Qualification matches and final standings were tracked live through the World Curling federation platform, with broadcast coverage provided via Curling Stadium Europe, Sportacentrs.com noted. The Ministry of Education and Science supported the Latvian national team’s participation in the qualifying event.
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