Home team slides into contention

As the host of the upcoming 9th Asian Winter Games, China will be sending a delegation of over 170 winter sports athletes. The first event for the Chinese team was the mixed doubles curling, with a round-robin match on the morning of Feb 4, in which Chinese curlers Han Yu and Wang Zhiyu flew the nation's flag high with a comprehensive 11-5 win over Kazakhstan. The duo followed that up with victories over Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea, putting them in medal contention already.

The curling competition is being held at the Harbin Pingfang District Curling Arena and features three disciplines: men's curling, women's curling, and mixed doubles curling, with the latter making its debut at the continental winter sports gala.

At the 8th Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, in 2017, the Chinese men's and women's curling teams clinched victories over the teams from Japan and the ROK, respectively, to secure their first-ever Asian Winter Games curling titles.