VERNON – Canada's Jennifer Jones put on a courageous display of desperation curling and stole back-to-back ends to wrestle the world championship semifinal away from Japan by a 9-8 score. 

Canada now faces China's Bingyu Wang for the 2008 Ford World Women's Curling Championship (Sunday, 10:30am PT).

No Asian team has ever won a medal at the adult worlds. China is guaranteed a silver medal and Japan's Moe Meguro now battles Switzerland's Mirjam Ott for bronze (Saturday, 6:00pm PT).

Stellar shotmaking featured early as the teams grappled for the lead. Jones made a cross-house double in the fourth end and forced Meguro to draw against five counters. In the sixth, Canada lay two buried when Meguro made a  runback to lie one, whereupon Jones made a long tap for her single.

The sixth end was pivotal as Canada ran into trouble. Japan broke the deadlock with a huge three-ender and a 6-3 lead, but chose a tentative play in the seventh end and Jones missed a difficult shot for three, scoring two.

"Japan came out on fire," Jones said afterward. "They matched us shot for shot." 

The late ends were a feast of momentum swings. In the eighth, Jones kissed a guard on her otherwise-perfect freeze attempt and Japan drew to score two for an 8-5 lead. In the ninth Jones made a brilliant soft runback for two to trail 8-7.

In the final frame Canada was in time clock trouble and had to rush their strategy and shotmaking. Japanese third Mari Motohashi made a superb triple-raise to clear the clutter but Jones made a deadly freeze on her first stone, and lay two on Meguro's winning attempt. The Japanese skip overruled her third, elected the hit but removed only one Canadian stone, forcing an extra-end.

There was yet more drama in the 11th end as Motohashi's last stone caught some debris and veered off course. Canada applied pressure and forced Meguro to throw a wide draw on a fresh patch of ice, and the shot missed. Canada had scored four unaswered points over three ends for the victory.

Jones, who finished fourth in her previous worlds appearance in 2005, is now guaranteed a silver medal. 

"We're just determined," said Jones.

"We never give up. It doesn't matter how you win them. I think this shows a lot of character."

Jones was asked about Japan's performance.

"I'm proud of Japan!" Jones emphasized. "I think they played outstanding and I think they should be proud of themselves."

Meguro seemed to agree.

"We had a very good game," said Meguro, who finished 4-7 a year ago in Aomori.

"They played very well. We could not finish it.

"Our momentum is not down, it is getting high. So we will win the bronze medal, I think."

Japan finished 7-4 in the round-robin and won two playoff games to advance to the semifinal. The hosts had finished the round-robin tied for first at 9-2 with China and Switzerland.

Seven broadcast partners are delivering live and tape-delayed action to world curling fans. Eurosport, NHK (Japan), TSN and CBC (Canada), WCSN and NBCOlympics.com (United States) and CurlTV are all on site in Vernon, with live results also available via curling.ca and results.worldcurling.org

CCA photos by Michael Burns