Julie Zelingrová and Ondřej Blaha played well in the basic part of the Children’s and Youth Olympics in Kangwon, South Korea, and with a night victory over the home pair 7:5, secured a place in the playoffs, where they will face the USA.
The Czechs managed to cope with a relatively difficult draw in the group, where they faced three favored pairs: Canada, Great Britain and South Korea. Yesterday, however, Julia and Ondřej managed to win over the Canadians, and today in the night hours of European time they also defeated the Koreans. With one loss, they advance from Group A in second place behind the British.
The coach of the Czech pair, Petr Horák, assessed the last two matches against Canada and Korea as crucial and praised our juniors for maintaining the lead in the matches until the end, which unfortunately did not happen in the match against Great Britain.
“The match against Korea started like a dream, when we scored two deuces against the opponent’s advantage. We then did not let go of the lead, although the Koreans kept improving. Julča and Ondra also managed a dramatic development in the 7th end, when we still did not manage to decide the match. The last end he was well looked after by us,” commented Petr Horák on the decisive match for promotion to the top eight.
In the quarterfinals, the Czechs will meet the undefeated Americans. The match starts at 11:00 Czech time, you can follow the online results here.
