"Just so excited," said Wang, who celebrated the win with teammates Yin Liu, Qingshuang Yue, Yan Zhou, Jinli Liu and Canadian coach Dan Raphael.

"It's so fantastic. So great."

Wang admitted she felt a little nervous before the final, describing the previous night's sleep as "a little bad."

"I was a little nervous and a little excited, but I just told myself, one more game. Don't think too much. Just play Sweden, and we played well.

"We lost the final last year, and we really wanted to get the gold. Everybody worked hard; it was a long week."

For the decorated veteran Norberg, the silver medal was just fine.

"We are very satisfied; we had a rough winter at home with a lot of personal problems," said Norberg.

Nearly 4,000 spectators attended the championship final [WCF photo by Lee Young Gyu]

"We were saying before coming here that if we were top four, that's OK for now and that's not our usual goal going into the worlds.

"And we finished in the final, so we're happy about that."

It was the second runner-up finish for the Swedes in two majors this season. Norberg lost the final of December's Le Gruyere European Championships to Switzerland's Mirjam Ott, the 2008 world silver medallist who finished fifth in Gangneung

The Chinese coming-out part started at last year's worlds in Vernon, Canada, where China went 9-2 and defeated Canada's Jennifer Jones twice en route to the gold medal final, where Canada prevailed.

Years of hardcore national team training had begun to pay off.

Jones defeated China in the first game of the week in Gangneung, which proved to be China's only blemish in 13 games.

As interest in Chinese curling skyrocketed, the team's hometown of Harbin, a northern winter sports hub, played host in to the 24th Winter Universiade, or World University Games last month.

Amid increasing pressure, Wang lived up to her number one ranking and captured gold, live on state television, and a star was born.

China also completed the World Curling Federation's three-year Olympic Qualification Points race in second place with 32 points scored over the past three world championships.

Only Canada bettered that mark, with 37 points (and two titles) in that period.

Montreal's Dan Raphael, who began coaching the Chinese women's and men's national teams three years ago, was pointedly asked if his women's squad was the favourite heading into next February's Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

"I hope so," Raphael said.

"Do I believe it? Yes. I think so."

The world championship for men begins Saturday in Moncton, Canada. The 2009 Ford World Men's Curling Championship will celebrate 50 years of the men's world championship, which began in Scotland in 1959.

The event features China, Canada, Scotland, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Finland, France, Japan, Switzerland, the United States and the Czech Republic.

(Worldcurling.org March 30, 2009)