Bernard to face Ott while world champions meet Olympic gold medallists

From Sportsbeat staff, in Vancouver

 CANADA skip Cheryl Bernard will do battle with Switzerland's Mirjam Ott for a place in the 2010 Winter Olympic final after notching up her eighth win in nine matches in Vancouver.

EASY AS PIE: Cheryl Bernard collects her eighth win in nine matches and will face Switzerland's Mirjam Ott in the semi finals (Getty Images)

Bernard, just like Canadian men's skip Kevin Martin, has been setting the pace at the Vancouver Olympic Centre and breezed through her final match against Russia's teenage skip Anna Sidorova 7-3.

Bernard, perhaps easing her foot off the pedal sure in the knowledge her place in the last four was safe, started sluggishly and found herself 2-1 down to Sidorova after five ends.

But Bernard and co sparked into life in the second half of the match in the sixth end with a quadruple and while Russia hit back with a single, two singles for the Canadians prompted Sidorova to throw in the towel and finish early.

Bernard will now face Ott for the second time in Vancouver, having overcome the Swiss skip 5-4 in a close encounter at the start of the competition.

Ott's place in the semi finals was already assured but she downed the USA's Debbie McCormick 10-3 in her final match, picking up two triples along the way.

China's world champion Bingyu Wang, the only skip to defeat Bernard in Vancouver, will face Sweden's defending Olympic champion Anette Norberg in the other semi final.

Norberg finished her round robin campaign with a narrow 8-7 victory over Germany, staving off a late comeback from skip Andrea Schoepp.

In the final match of the 12th and final session, Denmark's Madeleine Dupont overcame Japan's Moe Meguro 7-5 to ensure the Danes finished fifth.

 

AS IT HAPPENS: Follow day 12 of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver