Manitoba rinks book semifinal spots at World Junior Curling Championships

The Canadian women and men have secured semifinal spots at the World Junior Curling Championships.

Jacques Gauthier’s Manitoba men’s rink improved to a tournament-best 7-1 with a 6-1 win over host Russia skip Andrey Dudov on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Mackenzie Zacharias’s Manitoba women’s rink upped its record to 6-1 with a 7-4 win over Denmark’s Mathilde Halse.

Zacharias, third Karlee Burgess, second Emily Zacharias and lead Lauren Lenentine are second behind Korea (7-0) with two draws left in the round-robin.

Denmark, Russia and Japan are all 4-3, while Latvia and Switzerland both are 3-4.

Canada wraps up the round-robin with games against Latvia and Korea.

Winnipeg’s Braden Calvert was the last Manitoban to win the men’s title at world juniors in 2015. Kelly MacKenzie was the only Manitoba junior champion to go on to win the world junior women’s title in 1995.

The semifinals are scheduled for Friday.

3:19 Celebrating Manitoba 150 at Ironman Outdoor Curling Bonspiel