China's Wang Bingyu recorded two victories and led the World Women's Curling Championship in Gangneung, South Korea, with a win-loss record of 8-1 Wednesday.
Wang crushed Germany's Andrea Schoepp 8-2 and also recorded a close 4-3 win against Scotland's 18-year-old skip Eve Muirhead.
Denmark was in second place at 7-1 after Angelina Jensen stole the 10th end to beat defending champion Canada's skip Jenniffer Jones 7-5.
Canada dropped to third place at 7-2.
Switzerland's Mirjam Ott overwhelmed the 2003 world champions from the United States with an 8-2 victory in seven ends and improved to fourth place (5-3), equal with Sweden.
The Americans dropped to 4-5.
In the other Wednesday afternoon game, Russia's Margarita Fomina beat Norway's Marianne Roervik 7-2. The Russians improved to 4-5 while Norway sits last at 0-8.
Russia had earlier in the morning defeated Italy 7-6 on an extra-end.
Canada survived a scare before the defending champion edged out South Korea 7-6.
(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2009)
