The rise of the dragon

As China sits in first place at the conclusion of the penultimate day of round robin play at the 2009 World Women’s Curling Championship, it is stunning to witness China’s quick climb up the world ladder, considering the fact the country’s first participated in a Pacific Curling Championship in 2002.
China’s first foray into international women’s curling was in November 2002 in Queenstown, N.Z., for the Pacific Curling Championships. In that spiel, China, skipped by Qingshuang Yue looked like it was brand, new to curling with a record of 0-8 in the five-team, double round robin.
The scores weren’t terrible for China, losing by two points to Australia and one point to Japan, but it also lost 12-6 and 10-6 in its two games versus the host Kiwis, and 14-3 in its first game versus Australia.
The next year, the Chinese won two games, both against Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and finished fith of six teams, with skip Kelu Song.
The next year, 2004, marked the arrival of Bingyu Wang and the rise of the curling dragon.
Wang skipped a rink that included former skip Yue at second, Wang’s rink lost a close final 9-8 at the Pacific Championships that november in Chuncheon, South Korea.
This gave China its first berth at the worlds and started Wang on her steady climb to the top.
Starting with a respectable 4-7 and seventh place out of 12 teams in Paisley, Scotland that year, Wang and crew followed with records of: 6-5 (fifth) in 2006 and 5-6 (seventh) in 2007 before last year’s stunning breakthrough of a 10-3 record and a silver medal.
At the Pacific Championships, Wang has led China to two silvers (2004, ’05) and three golds (2006-08).
With this kind of speedy progress, one would think it would just be a matter of time before China won a world crown and that could happen as soon as Sunday.