Canada's Team Jacobs pushing towards playoff bye and clinching Olympic berth at worlds

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Two triumphs Thursday by Canada ran its record to a dominant 9-1 at the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship.

That’s first place and a playoff spot for Team Jacobs from Calgary.

It also puts Brad Jacobs & Co. one step closer to the coveted playoff bye through to the weekend’s semifinal draw in Moose Jaw, Sask. A win in either of their games Friday — versus Austria (1-9) in the afternoon (4 p.m. ET, TSN) or against USA (4-6) in the finale at night (9 p.m. ET, TSN) — guarantees them that bye.

And barring some kind of disqualification during their run at Temple Gardens Centre, their two-win Thursday meant a qualification clinch for Canada in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

So much secured, for sure, on the penultimate day of round-robin action.

“It feels like everybody is playing pretty well at a pretty high level here,” said Gallant, referring to the performance of most of the 13 teams on hand at worlds.

“So it’s kind of about trying to stay away from that congestion that’s right below us (in the standings),” continued Gallant. “It seems like everybody kind of nipping at each other.

“To get a few wins in a row against teams that are really close to us in the standings is great and great for the confidence.”

The morning 8-2 win in seven ends over China (6-3) pushed Xu Xiaoming’s crew from Harbin further away from catching the Canadians for a top-two playoff spot and the big bye.

Then they did the same thing with the 10-4 evening victory over Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller (7-3).

And then there’s that five-rings thing …

While World Curling won’t official announce Olympic berths until all the teams are determined for the eight-country field of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, the Canadians know a high placing at these worlds would give our country the right to go for Games glory next winter.

The unofficial word from Curling Canada is … “It’s looking good.”

But we already know that.

Mathematically, Canada looks like it’s now secured an Olympic berth in Italy.

And although Jacob and his rink from Calgary’s Glencoe Club are the nation’s representatives at men’s worlds and looking strong in pushing for a title this weekend at Temple Gardens Centre, it’s not guaranteed they will be the ones representing Canada at the Olympics.

The 2025 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials are set to decide that Nov. 22-30 in Halifax.

WHICH OTHERS ARE IN FOR THE OLYMPICS?

Those seven nations getting the next-up berths to join host Italy for the 2026 Games are determined by combining the Olympic qualification points earned from both this year’s and last year’s worlds.

And those points are garnered by a country’s placing in each year’s standings at the worlds.

After Friday’s play at worlds, here is that scoreboard, which changes with every game:

• Canada, 26 points

• Sweden, 25

• Great Britain (Scotland), 21

• Switzerland, 19

• Italy 16 (host)

• USA, 14

• Germany, 13

• Czechia, 12

• Norway, 11

• China, 9

• Japan, 6

• Netherlands, 6 (not participating in 2025 worlds)

• Korea, 3

• Austria, 2

• New Zealand, 1 (not participating in 2025 worlds)

So because of the current nine-win record for Jacobs, it appears Canada can’t finish any lower than fourth in these worlds, so they are already locked in to collect enough for the Olympic qualification process, giving them enough of a combined point total from the two world championships for a spot at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.

The rest have yet to be determined, with China — in particular — needing a strong finish in Moose Jaw after not participating in the 2024 worlds.

As the host country, Italy has already qualified, with the current world championship squad skipped by Joël Retornaz likely to be named to represent that nation.

The 41-year-old skip is already a three-time Olympian.

“I hope we will have attention in Italy this time,” Retornaz, who also repped Italy at the 2006 Turin Games, told World Curling’s Mike Haggerty. “We’re hosting the Olympic Games again and we’ve had good results in the last few years. Our men’s team is doing well, our women’s team (skipped by Stefania Constantini) is doing well, and we’re defending champions in mixed doubles (after Olympic gold won in 2022 by Constantini and Amos Mosaner), so it’s the best moment for Italian curling right now.

“I hope there will be a lot of attention but also people will expect a lot of us, and I hope we get good results,” added Retornaz. “The attention will bring pressure, too, but I’m not scared about pressure.”

In case Olympic-host Italy does not finish in the top-eight places of the Olympic qualification points list, only the seven highest ranked nations qualify for 2026 Milano Cortina via this path.

Two Olympic spots are then up for grabs at the last-chance event in Kelowna, Dec. 6-19, to round out the 10-country field at the Games.

HOW DID CANADA BEAT CHINA?

The 8-2 seven-ender saw China make too many mistakes, with the Xu’s rocks being mismatched as the main culprit.

After Canada hit and stuck for two in the first end, Xu’s hammer rolled away in trying to count a deuce, giving China just one in second frame.

Canada pressured China for an easy two in the third and then forced China into another one-count in the fourth.

After getting just one in the fifth, Canada came back with a steal of two in the sixth to take a commanding lead.

And another steal — this time of one — iced it for Team Jacobs and ended the game.

Canada third Marc Kennedy curled 98% in the contest.

“That was a good sheet,” Kennedy told TSN’s Cathy Gauthier. “Nice to have a morning draw — I think it was a little bit less patchy.

“But we’re getting more comfortable now that the rocks have been textured, and I think you saw that. We had some pretty precise draws and some nice hit-and-rolls. Trending upward … good.”

HOW DID CANADA BEAT SWITZERLAND?

Jacobs made it happen with two big ends — a three in the fifth and a four in the eighth to end the contest early.

Canada answered Switzerland’s single in the second frame with a deuce in the third and then limited the Swiss again to just one with last rock in the fourth.

That was as close as the foes could get to the hosts, because the three-count blew it open for Jacobs & Co. in the fifth.

A steal of one in the sixth gave Canada and even bigger cushion, although Schwaller tried to claw back with a deuce in the seventh end.

But that four just shut the door.

EXTRA ENDS

Also Thursday morning: Sweden (7-3) hammered Scotland (7-3) 10-4 in just six ends, thanks to a four-end third and a three-end sixth; Switzerland smacked Italy (4-6) 8-3; and Norway (6-4) topped South Korea (1-9) 10-5 … The afternoon draw saw: Czechia (6-5) 7-2 over Austria; Japan (4-7) 7-6 over China; Italy (4-6) upended Germany (4-6) 9-3; and Scotland 8-6 over USA … The evening also featured: South Korea (1-9) with its first win of the event — 5-3 — over struggling USA; Norway 11-5 over Japan; and Sweden 5-4 over Czechia … Draws 18, 19 and 20 to round out the round robin are slated for Friday respectively at 11 a.m., 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. — all times ET and on TSN.

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

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