It was a single errant 45-pound hunk of granite that spoiled Debbie McCormick's day. The U.S. champion missed a crucial but routine draw in the third end of the Page 3/4 Playoff match, handed four stolen points to Scotland's Kelly Wood and spiralled out of the 2007 World Women's Curling Championships. The final score was 11-5 in nine ends.

"It was a little heavy, but I guess I was just wide," said McCormick, the 2006 finalist and 2003 champion. "It's very disappointing after getting so close last year. They (Scotland) played well."

The beginning of the end started innocently enough. The Americans missed repeated efforts to draw behind cover, and the Scots knocked the U.S. rocks clear. On McCormick's last stone, there were four Scottish rocks in the rings but the path was wide-open for a simple draw to the rings for a point. However, McCormick was a touch wide, the rock ran straight and crashed on a guard, and the U.S. suddenly trailed 5-0.

"There's no way you would imagine that," said Wood, who will face the loser of Saturday's Page 1/2 game between Canada and Denmark. The winner of that match is into Sunday's final.

"There was so much ice, it was a bit of a shock. It was strange, but nice."

Wood is guaranteed a bronze medal.

"It's my first medal in six or seven (international) championships," said the enthused skip.

"I've never been this far into the playoffs. I'm just going to enjoy the games the rest of the way."

Prior to the game, the final four teams enjoyed a practice day, followed by a demonstration of Mixed Doubles curling, the new discipline being promoted by the World Curling Federation.

Numerous teams, coaches and curious spectators attended the four-end exhibition, which featured Danish and American pairs throwing five rocks each, and with two extra stones placed in strategic positions before each end. The game was filmed by World Curling Television to help the sport's 46 member nations develop the discipline in their countries. The first World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship takes place in Vierumäki, Finland on March 9-15, 2008.

Jackie Lockhart (SCO), Kelly Wood (SCO), Friends, USA

Debbie McCormick (USA)

Curling pundits are shaking their heads at the stunning performance of Angelina Jensen's Team Denmark here at the Aomori Prefecture Skating Rink, the venue for the 2007 World Women's Curling Championship.

After all, it's been nine years since a Danish women's team made this much noise at a major curling competition. That was, of course, the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Karuizawa, roughly eight hours away by the Shinkansen "bullet train," where Helena Blach Lavrsen won a surprise silver medal.

Jensen outscored Germany's Andrea Schoepp 11-7 to climb to 8-1 before losing to frontrunner Kelly Scott of Canada by an 8-1 count. Canada  had earlier defeated Russia's Ludmila Privivkova 10-5 and sits in first place at a perfect 9-0.

Meanwhile, Sweden's Anette Norberg, the two-time defending world champion and Olymppic gold medallist was officially kicked out of the playoffs by a nation making its world debut. Hana Synackova of the Czech Republic led her team to an 8-6 victory, her second of the tournament, leaving the Swedes at 5-5 and out of contention. Norberg was classy in defeat.

"For the past two years, everything has been going so well, and nothing has stopped us," said Norberg. "This week, we didn't know how to handle it."

Apart from one event in Stockholm, the Swedish machine had not lost a tournament in over two years. The run also included five consecutive European Championships, World Curling Tour cash tournaments and they were even featured in a popular heavy-metal music video. A victory would have made them the first team to ever win three consecutive world titles.

"We're not the kind of team to count statistics," said Norberg. "We just want to play, and play our best."

The Czechs, meanwhile, were jumping for joy after their win.

"That doesn't sound right at all, does it?" asked their rhetorical third, Karolina Pilarova. "It can't get any better."

Debbie McCormick of the United States also won an enormous game, 9-5 over Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni, which eliminated the Swiss from playoff contention.

"It's been working better for us to play with less rocks in play," said McCormick, last year's world finalist and the 2003 champion, who is guaranteed at least a tiebreaker berth. If the Americans beat Japan in their last round-robin match, they are through to the final four.

"It's going to be a tough game (against Japan)," said McCormick. "That's not going to be an easy one either."

Last year, Denmark's Jensen had to leave the competition early due to health concerns. Her team battled valiantly without her, losing the final round-robin game to finish 6-5 and one win away from tiebreakers.

This year, another Dane will be departing early. Second Camilla Jensen, Angelina's sister, leaves Friday to write a critical university exam back home. She is now out of the starting lineup with one round-robin matches left to play, and alternate Ana Hansen is in.

"It's my whole education, so sadly I must go," said Jensen. "So let's go Denmark, let's get those Olympic points."

The 2007 worlds is the first of three events that will qualify 10 nations for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
At the start of the tournament, an opening 11-6 loss to the United States merely led to eight Danish wins in a row up to the Canada match.
Observers are also scratching their skulls over Denmark's team statistics. While Scott's foursome is the numerical class of the field, the Danes rank only ninth in cumulative curling stats, and between seventh and ninth in individual rankings.

In addition to the Jensen sisters, Denmark's regular back-end is also a sibling act, with Madeleine and Denise Dupont throwing the final four stones. In the other Wednesday night matchup China beat Japan 6-4. Earlier Sweden thumped Italy 12-1 while Scotland, who are in the thick of things at 7-2, dumped the Czech Republic 7-2.
 

Diana Gaspari (ITA), Debbie McCormick (USA), Diana Gaspari (ITA), Jackie Lockhart & Kelly Wood (SCO)

From the penthouse to the outhouse in just three months.

That's the harsh reality for Italy's promising young skip Diana Gaspari, the likeable and surprising silver medallist at last December's Le Gruyere European Championships.

Here at the world women's curling championship, Gaspari lives a lonely existence on the ice as the losses continue to pile up.

"It's difficult for me," Gaspari said after her fifth consecutive setback, this time 6-5 to host Japan. Later on, she ended the day with a horrid 9-0 loss to Canada in just six ends.

"I can't find draw weight," Gaspari said. "Not at all. "It's not the right feeling, when a skip has no draw weight. You have fear, and you cannot do a lot of things you want to do."

Gaspari steered her Italian charges to the final of the Europeans in Basel, Switzerland, losing to the very young - and also surprising - Russian team. The silver brought huge headlines in the Italian media and tears of joy for Gaspari and her teammates, after years of slow if steady development on the world curling scene.

More of the same was expected in Aomori, but Gaspari is mired in a sporting death spiral. Her personal struggles, which clock in at a miserable 64 per cent in shooting, have made the skip aware of the disappointment in her teammates' eyes.

"I know they are upset with me," Gaspari revealed."They don't want to tell me, but I know. You always know."

Also battling demons is an unlikely foursome: Anette Norberg's Swedish team. Usually a fearful curling machine, the squad's engine clearly needs tinkering as Norberg lost 5-4 in an extra-end to Germany's struggling Andrea Schoepp, and fell to 3-3.
Earlier, Norberg dropped a shocking four points in the final frame of her 8-6 loss to Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni.

"It's a little bit of everything," Norberg shrugged. "We're not playing as well as we can, and the ice today was not as good, there was a little too much curl sometimes."

German second Ana Hartelt took a tumble on Schoepp's winning shot, and narrowly missed "burning" the rock - or touching it - which would have meant a miss and the loss of the game. Hartelt, sprawled across the ice, had to twist herself into a pretzel to avoid the stone as her horrified teammates looked on, and the shot was made and the result saved.

"Oh my God," said an embarrassed Hartelt. "I almost touched it three times, and I had to lift my legs and my broom to avoid it."

In other games, Denmark's Angelina Jensen climbed to 5-1 with a pair of wins, 9-6 over Scotland's Kelly Wood and 7-6 over China's Bingyu Wang. Russia's Ludmila Privikova split her games, defeating Hana Synckova of the Czech Republic 8-6 but losing 9-6 to Debbie McCormick of the United States.

It was a two-win day for the Americans, as they also beat the Czechs by 7-4 count. Canada's Kelly Scott continues to motor along, adding yet another win, this time by an 8-3 scoreline over Japan's Moe Meguro. A surprise has come from Switzerland, where two-time Olympic silver medallist Mirjam Ott has come off the bench to play third for skip Silvana Tirinzoni. After an 0-3 start without Ott in the lienup, the Swiss have now won three in a row to climb back into contention.
 

Kelly Scott (CAN), Sweden, Violetta Caldart & Diana Gaspari (ITA), Scotland