Photo: VCG

Chinese duo Wang Zhiyu and Han Yu defeated their Kazakh rivals 11-5 in the mixed doubles round-robin match of curling at the 9th Asian Winter Games Harbin 2025 on Tuesday,MKS sports securing the first victory for the Chinese delegation at the event. 

During the mixed doubles curling competition, the Chinese team quickly gained a strong lead, finishing the first five ends with a commanding 10-1 score. Although the Kazakhstan team closed the gap by scoring 4 points in the sixth end, Han and Wang held onto their advantage and ultimately won the match 11-5.

Mixed doubles curling is a new event at the Asian Winter Games, and Wang and Han are a newly paired duo. This match marked their debut in an international competition.

"Both Wang and Han participated in the men's and women's four-player curling events at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics," Luo Le, a sports commentator based in Beijing, told the Global Times. "The mixed doubles event requires a high level of overall skill from the athletes - solid fundamentals, precise shot-making ability, and seamless teamwork. Their previous experience has allowed them to coordinate seamlessly."

In a pre-match interview, Han mentioned that through anaerobic training, he can quickly bring his heart rate down from the 170 beats per minute he reaches during sweeping the ice. Similarly, Wang said that after 14 years of curling, the technical movements have become muscle memory for him.

These physical and technical preparations will be put to the test as a total of 16 teams compete in the curling events at the Asian Winter Games in Harbin. On Wednesday, Team China will face Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines.

According to the Beijing Youth Daily, at the 8th Asian Winter Games in 2017, the Chinese curling team, consisting of Wang Rui, Wang Bingyu, Liu Jinli, and Zhou Yan, defeated South Korea in the finals to win the first-ever Asian Winter Games gold medal in curling. 

In addition to curling, the ice hockey events at this year's Asian Winter Games are divided into men's and women's categories, with a total of two gold medals to be awarded. The Chinese men's team lost to South ­Korea 5-6 in their opening match of the Games on Tuesday night.

The opening ceremony of the 9th Asian Winter Games will be held on Friday. Due to the larger number of teams and longer schedules for ice hockey and curling, these events were held on Monday and Tuesday, ahead of the official opening.

The curling venue for this year's Asian Winter Games was originally an elementary school ice hockey rink, according to a report from the Beijing Youth Daily. The athletes' rest area was set up inside the school's teaching building, utilizing repurposed classrooms to achieve a cost-effective and efficient solution.

According to CCTV News, this year's Asian Winter Games has set new records in terms of both the number of participants and the scale of the competition. Besides mixed doubles curling, ski mountaineering, and synchronized aerial freestyle skiing are making their debut as competition events at the Asian Winter Games.

Zhao Jing, a professor and expert in winter sports from the Tianjin University of Sport, told the Global Times that the Asian Winter Games is not just a sports platform, but also a typical example of how events can be used to drive the development of the winter sports industry. 

"By bidding for large-scale winter sports exchange activities, we can attract more enthusiasts to focus on winter sports, which will promote interaction and cooperation between domestic and international communities," Zhao said.

"The organizers of this year's Asian Winter Games have focused on refining every detail to ensure the best experience for athletes, spectators, and staff," Li Xuanyi, a volunteer on-site in Harbin, told the Global Times.

Li noted that the dinners provided by the organizing committee include three types of meat and one vegetable dish, such as beef brisket with tomato and ribs, ensuring that both athletes and staff receive sufficient nutrition while enjoying delicious meals. In addition, the limited-edition Winter Asian Games badges have attracted attention of spectators and athletes both at home and abroad.