VERNON – Surprises continued at the 2008 Ford World Women's Curling Championship as Japan muscled its way into a tiebreaker spot.

In Thursday afternoon action, Japan defeated Pacific rivals China 8-7 and Denmark, who defeated Canada Thursday morning, lost 8-6 to Sweden. 

Japan and Denmark have final won/loss records of 7-4 and are guaranteed tiebreaker berths.

China, Canada and Switzerland are all at 8-2 with their final matches scheduled for Thursday night. China meets Germany (4-6), Switzerland meets Russia (4-6) and the big game sees Canada against Sweden (6-4).

A victory by Sweden's Stina Viktorsson could vault her team into the tiebreakers, and drop Canada into the Page playoff "3 versus 4" game on Friday.

The winner of Friday's Page playoff "1 versus 2" match goes directly to Sunday's championship final. The loser drops into Saturday's semifinal.

"We want to win the tiebreakers," said Japanese third Mari Motohashi. "We want more wins to go to the 2010 Olympics. Seven wins is not enough."

Japan had to scrample for the victory. Skip Moe Meguro captained her squad into a 5-2 lead after a steal of three in the fifth end. Up 7-5 and with last-rock advantage playing the ninth end, China's Bingyu Wang stole not once but twice to force an extra-end.

However, Japanese lead player Kotomo Ishizaki made two perfect "tick" shots, spilling Chinese guards without removing them from play, and Meguro eventually made a shaky takeout for the win.

"I love my lead," enthused Motohashi.

Viktorsson grabbed a three-ender in the second end to jump ahead 3-0, but Denmark tied it after four ends. Sweden then took a deuce in the fifth and then stole the eighth for a 7-4 lead. A deuce from Denmark in the ninth wasn't enough as the Swedes finished the job in the final end, scoring one for the win.

In other matches, Debbie McCormick of the United States won her first game in three days 7-6 by stealing the extra-end from Russia's Liudmila Privivkova, and Scotland won yet another extra-end game, 5-4 over Italy.

The Scots are at 2-8 for the championship and fielded only three players for the game against Italy. 

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 on site in Vernon, with live results also available via curling.ca and results.worldcurling.org

CCA photos by Michael Burns