18 Oct 2024 – New Zealand were knocked out in the first playoff round at the 2024 World Mixed Curling Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland and finished ninth overall.

Brett Sargon, Holly Thompson, KJ Fourd and Olivia Russell were beaten 6-1 by an efficient USA side in the Round of 16.

"To win against these top teams, we need to get something out of every shot to put them under any kind of pressure," said skip Brett Sargon.

"We weren't quite there, and they were. It has been a great competition though and we felt we deserved to be in playoffs, just didn't quite do enough to give ourselves a chance to make it to the quarters."

This was just the second time a Kiwi side has qualified for the knockout rounds at a World Mixed Championship, the first being eight years ago in Russia.

The Kiwis had made a strong start to the tournament, putting pressure on their opponents to win their first three games. They went off the boil, dropping two games to briefly put their playoff spot in jeopardy, but eventually went into their last pool game against leaders Canada knowing that their qualification was secure.

A win there would have placed them second in their pool, but despite playing probably their best game of the tournament they were beaten 8-5 and placed third.

The team had not been together since winning the NZ Mixed Championship in June, and put their good performance here down to a solid week's training in Kinross before the event.

"The team give their overwhelming thanks to our hosts Julia and Iain Cormack, the unofficial NZ embassy in Kinross," said KJ Fourd.

"It was great to have us all together at the Cormack house and start building as a team. We had a good practice game against the Aussies, and the team dynamic and communication came together well."

Sweden beat Japan in the gold medal game, and Switzerland headed Spain for the bronze. New Zealand finished 9th equal.
 

• World Curling tournament page - live scoring and results
   
• Watch live on The Curling Channel (micropayments apply)
   
• NZ record at World Mixed Championship

From left: Olivia Russell, KJ Fourd, Holly Thompson and Brett Sargon

Holly Thompson and Brett Sargon, happy in their work vs England

Pre-game banter

Holly Thompson

Olivia Russell

Brett Sargon

KJ Fourd and Olivia Russell