Italy stir up surprises

Italy is sitting comfortably in second place heading into the playoffs of the 2006 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships.

Diana Gaspari's entry from Cortina d'Ampezzo finished the round-robin at 6-3 along with Switzerland's Mirjam Ott, who claimed third place.

Scotland's Rhona Martin, the 2002 Olympic gold medallist, beat Sweden's Camilla Johansson 7-6 in a tiebreaker and will face Germany's Andrea Schöpp in another tiebreaker for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Italian national coach Rodger Schmidt said those pundits shouldn't be surprised at all.

"I'm really pleased to see (the team) came out and play this week the way we know they can," said Schmidt. "I'm disappointed it didn't happen eight months ago, because we were ready then. it just didn't happen."

"Then" was the Olympic Winter Games, played in the team's homeland at Pinerolo. Gaspari's women's squad finished last at 1-8, while Joel Retornaz' men's team won four games and finished seventh, and captured the hearts of Italy's rookie curling fans.

"We didn't do anything differently now, in preparing for this, than we did a year ago or more," said Schmidt.

"But that's curling, and you don't get to pick and choose your spots. Sometimes it just doesn't happen for you, other times everything clicks. Now it's clicking."

Gaspari is relatively young, at age 22, and skips a team mixed with veterans and youth. She herself advanced to the A-pool at the European Championships a few years ago and hasn't looked back since. New to the line-up is second Giorgia Appollonio, who is barely 18.

In men's play, Finald's Markku Uusipaavalniemi made it into the tiebreakers but succumbed 6-5 to Norway's Thomas Ulsrud. The Norwegians face Per Carlsen of Sweden in another tiebreaker for the fourth playoff spot, with the winner meeting the owner of third place, Germany's Sebastian Stock, in the three-versus-four Page Playoff match.

Scotland (David Murdoch) and Switzerland (Andreas Schwaller) finished atop the standings at 7-2 and will meet in Friday's first-versus-second place match-up.