Canada’s Kerri Einarson struggled mightily at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship on Sunday, dropping a 7-6 decision to the United States for her third straight loss.
Einarson shot just 54 per cent over all in her worst game of round-robin play. The Americans improved to 3-2 while Canada slumped to 1-4.
The Manitoba-based foursome was tied for 11th place in the 14-team field. The top six teams will make the playoffs.
Einarson flashed a stone in the fourth end and wrecked on a guard in the fifth to miss out on multiple points.
American skip Tabitha Peterson made a nice pick to score a deuce in the eighth end for a 7-3 lead. Einarson rebounded with a pair in the ninth, but the U.S. sealed the victory with a takeout of the second shot stone in the 10th end.
The morning draw was postponed Sunday and competition eventually resumed without television coverage after members of the event’s broadcast staff tested positive for COVID-19.
In an e-mail to The Canadian Press, World Curling Federation media head Christopher Hamilton confirmed there were four positive cases. No names or additional details were provided.
The individuals were isolating in their hotel while additional testing and contact tracing takes place, the WCF said in its statement.
The staffers are staying in a different hotel than athletes and competition officials, who were cleared to return after a deep clean of the WinSport Arena.
The WCF said that all scheduled testing for athletes and competition officials returned negative results. The start times for the afternoon and evening draws were pushed back a half hour.
Einarson was scheduled to return to action Monday with games against Germany’s Daniela Jentsch and South Korea’s Eunjung Kim.
Television broadcasts will resume no earlier than Tuesday afternoon. The competition is part of TSN’s Season of Champions coverage and is broadcast internationally by World Curling TV.
“Thanks for the good wishes,” TSN broadcaster Vic Rauter said on Twitter. “We are quarantined, tested, cared for, hope to be back Tuesday, take care of yourselves and each other.”