- The team around Skip Yannick Schwaller outclassed Italy in Ottawa with 11:3.
- After 8 ends, the Italians give up.
- The Scots, who played outstandingly in the final and also didn’t give Canada a chance, were crowned world champions.
Italy’s skip Joël Retornaz didn’t have his best day: In the 5th end, a stone completely failed him: Instead of the Swiss stones, he sent his own stone out of the house – the Swiss were able to steal 3 stones and pull away to 8:0.
After the break, the Italians reduced to 2:8 – the Swiss hit back with a three-pointer. After 8 ends with a score of 11:3 for the Swiss Curling selection, Retornaz and Co. congratulated the Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller and his comrades-in-arms Pablo Lachat, Sven Michel and Benoît Schwarz on the bronze medal at the World Championships.
The final end offered something special: the two teams thrilled the audience with joke stone deliveries.
Triple revenge
With the victory, Schwaller achieved the perfect revenge for the clear out in last year’s quarterfinals against Italy (4:10). In this year’s preliminary round and at the last European Championships in November, the Swiss were beaten by the Retornaz team.
In the bronze game, the Swiss took control from the start. After a zero end, they presented with a two-man house. Then they managed to steal stones in 3 ends in a row: first 1, then 2, then 3. Notably Schwaller himself (98% successful stones) and Black in 4th position (88%) played outstandingly. World Championship bronze is also a small consolation for the best team of the round robin after 5:7 against Canada in the semifinals.
Scotland takes the title
For their part, the Canadians later lost the final against an outstanding Scotland 9:3. The percentage values of the Swiss were already strong, but those of the Scots seemed to be from another planet. At halftime (score 6:1) Skip Bruce Mouat had not missed a stone in 4th position – the team average was over 98%.
As a result, the Scots gave up a bit and their accuracy dropped by 2 percentage points by the end. Nevertheless, this was enough for a 9:3 victory, after 8 ends the Canadians, who could not build on their performance from the semifinals, gave up.
For the Scottish team around Skip Mouat it is the first world title in this formation. Scotland last won the World Cup in 2009.