Canada Men win gold at the World Junior Curling Championships 2015

Canada won the men's world title as they beat defending champions Switzerland by 6-3 in the gold medal final at the Tondiraba Ice Hall in Tallinn, Estonia. At the same time, Scotland's men claimed bronze medals when they beat Sweden by 8-3 in the bronze game.

Canada clinched a last-stone win over Switzerland in the Page 1-2 Play-off game to go direct to the final, but Switzerland then battled through the semi-final, beating Sweden by 9-4, to give themselves a second chance at Canada.

With last stone advantage, Canada blanked the first end and then opened the scoring with two points in the second end when Switzerland's fourth player Romano Meier could not pull off a double take-out, leaving Canadian skip Braden Calvert to draw his last stone into the house.

Switzerland then blanked the third end but, in the fourth end, Meier's last stone wrecked on a guard on the way in, handing Canada a single point steal and a 3-0 lead.

Switzerland blanked again in the fifth end but Canada had another single point steal in the sixth end when Meier could only remove one of two Canadian stones sitting in the house. This gave them a 4-0 lead.

Switzerland finally got on the scoreboard in the seventh end, but had to settle with drawing for one point rather than the bigger score they were looking for. Canada re-asserted themselves in the eighth end, leaving skip Calvert with a draw for two points and a 6-1 lead.

Switzerland played on, scoring two points in the ninth end with a delicate tap-up by fourth player Meier to reduce the Canadian lead to 6-3, but in the tenth end, Calvert's first stone took out two Swiss stones in the house, running Switzerland out of stones and giving Canada their first junior men's world title since 2012.

This was the same Canadian foursome that finished fourth in 2014 and afterwards, a delighted skip Calvert said: "It’s unbelievable. I’m so proud of the guys. They went out there and shot the lights out. It’s a dream come true for all of us. We did exactly what we wanted to do - get off to a good start, try and get a deuce straight away and carry the momentum right through the game and the guys just didn’t miss a peel all day."

On the difference between this year's gold and last year's fourth place, Calvert said: "We just bared down and worked a little bit harder going into this season. We threw a ton of rocks in Winnipeg and it really shows when you get out here. It’s pretty special to not only bring home a medal, but a gold medal. It’s just icing on the cake."

Meanwhile, disappointed and deposed world champion Yannick Schwaller, third player and skip for Switzerland, was gracious in defeat, saying: "They had a really good match. I think they hit every shot. We weren’t so good in the first half and we had a lot of misses. But we've had a good week and in a few days, with the silver medal, I think we will be happy".

The bronze game was between Sweden and Scotland. The Scots had lost to Sweden in the Page 3-4 Play-off, while Sweden had been defeated by Switzerland in the semi-final.

Sweden opened with last stone in this game and blanked the first two ends. Then in the third end, Swedish skip Fredrik Nyman had a complete miss with a take-out attempt and came up short with his final stone draw, giving Scotland a steal of three points.

Nyman made up for this in the fourth end with a good double take-out and stay to open his account with one point, but in the fifth end Scottish skip Bruce Mouat played a nose-hit to score one point and take a 4-1 lead in to half-time.

Sweden came right back into the game in the sixth end when Nyman hit out two Scottish stones and scored two points, to reduce Scotland's lead to 4-3.

Mouat responded in the seventh end with a double take-out for two points. The Scots moved further ahead in the eighth end when Nyman's tap-up attempt went wrong, giving Scotland a steal of one for a 7-3 lead.

The game concluded in the ninth end when Nyman could only remove one Scottish stone, leaving another to count one point for 8-3, at which point the Swedes conceded.

After his bronze medal win, Scotland's skip Bruce Mouat said: "It feels really good. It wasn’t our best week here but satisfied with the bronze. We’ve got a great team dynamic and the guys played awesome all week so I’m just chuffed."

Meanwhile a disappointed Swedish skip Nyman said: "Unfortunately, that was our worst game this week. After a tough miss in the third end we fought well but did not manage to come back."

RESULTS

Medal games: Switzerland 3, Canada 6; Scotland 8, Sweden 3.

Final Standings (W-L):

1. Canada (10-1) Gold Medal

2. Switzerland (8-4) Silver Medal

3. Scotland (7-4) Bronze Medal

4. Sweden (7-5)

5. United States (4-5)

6. Norway (4-5)

7. Korea (3-6) B

8. Italy (3-6) B

9. Russia (3-6) B

10. Estonia (1-9) B

B - Teams now drop into the World Junior-B Curling Championships 2016 event taking place in Lohja, Finland in January 2016. The three medal winning teams from this qualification event will then participate in the World Junior Curling Championships 2016.

Curling fans around the world will be able to follow live coverage of the Championships on the event website and the World Curling Federation’s YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV

The live coverage schedule is available along with news, live scores and galleries here:

Event website: http://wjcc2015.curlingevents.com

For more information, please contact:

Joanna Kelly

WCF Media Relations

media@worldcurling.org

Tel: +372 592 442 35

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