The New Zealand men's curling team has qualified for the 2012 World Men's Curling Championship, their first appearance at a world competition since the 2006 Winter Olympics.
The side of Peter de Boer, Sean Becker, Scott Becker, Kenny Thomson and Philip Dowling qualified with a semifinal win over Korea at the Pacific-Asia Championships in Nanjing, China last night (Friday NZT).
The two sides started the best-of-five semi-final series at 1-1 after sharing the honours with a win apiece from their two pool games earlier in the week. The kiwis began in confident fashion, stealing the first three points of the game, before another steal late in the match confirmed a comfortable 8-2 win.
The second match was tighter but New Zealand held the advantage throughout. The Korean skip had a chance to level the scores in the last end but his draw was too heavy, and a relieved New Zealand side took out the game and the series.
China beat Australia in the other semifinal so will join New Zealand at March's World Championship in Switzerland, where qualification points for the 2014 Winter Olympics are at stake. China and New Zealand will also play for the Pacific-Asia Men's gold medal later today (Saturday).
In the women's competition, New Zealand were well beaten by an experienced Chinese in a 3-0 clean sweep, meaning the kiwis will meet Japan for Pacific-Asia bronze.