VERNON – The 2008 Ford World Women's Curling Championship has roared to life in this picturesque town on Canada's west coast, with Asian curling making an early statement on the rest of the world.

China's Bingyu Wang steered an 11-5 first-round upset win over Sweden and Japan's Moe Meguro scored two points in the final end to edge Italy 9-8.

The Chinese jumped out to a 4-1 lead over Sweden's Stina Viktorsson. After surrendering a three-count in the seventh, China scored back-to-back threes and the Swedes conceded.

"It was a surprise for us," said Wang, whose team of full-time curlers is competing in their fourth World Women's championship. "We are just trying to be comfortable. The ice curls so much, and it's so fast."

"We didn't play nearly as good as we need to, and they played a very good game" said Viktorsson, a junior veteran making her first Worlds appearance.

"Everything is new and that it might be because of that, but we must play much better." 

Japan took a huge five-ender on Italy's Diana Gaspari in the third end for a 5-2 lead, but surrendered a four-count two ends later to fall behind 6-5. Down one in the 10th end, Gaspari left her stone exposes and Meguro made a delicate hit for the win.

"Actually we had a lot of mistakes," said Meguro, whose team finished eighth at last year's Worlds in Aomori, Japan.

"They made mistakes too. They helped us, a little."

Denmark's Angelina Jensen, the 2007 runner-up to Canada's Kelly Scott, scored an 8-5 win over 2003 world champion Debbie McCormick of the United States.

"We knew we had a chance to win but this is the first time we've beaten them," said Jensen. "The key on our team is to have fun and stick together." 

McCormick, who finished fourth in Aomori, plays Japan on Saturday night, while Denmark meets Italy.

Scotland's Gail Munroe won an 8-7 see-saw battle against the 2006 European champions from Russia, skipped by Liudmila Privivkova. The Scots recovered from a four-ender in the sixth end and a 6-3 deficit to post five points in the next three ends to take the lead.

"I've seen them play better," said Munroe. "Basel in 2006 was definitely their year.

"To go home two up after having been three down, we really turned it around."

Teams getting their first taste of action Saturday night include Canada's Jennifer Jones, who takes on Switzerland's Mirjam Ott, and German veteran Andrea Schoepp, who battles Katerina Urbanova of the Czech Republic.

No less than seven broadcast partners are delivering live and tape-delayed action to world curling fans. Eurosport, NHK (Japan), TSN and CBC (Canada), WCSN and NBCOlympics.com (United States) and CurlTV are all onsite in Vernon, with live results also available via curling.ca and results.worldcurling.org