Scotland and Sweden emerged victorious at the 2007 World Senior Championships, contested before a packed crowd at the Thistle Curling Club in Edmonton, Canada.
To the disappointment of the fans, both Canadian teams lost the finals, and settled for silver medals.
In men's play, Scotland's Keith Prentice made a brilliant come-around tap with his last rock to beat Canada's Al Hackner 6-5. One sheet over, veteran World and Canadian Senior champion Anne Dunn and her mates saw a perfect 11-and-0 round-robin record go down the drain when they were beaten 8-5 by defending champion Ingrid Meldahl of Sweden in the final match.
Prentice, directing Lockhart Steele, Tommy Fleming and Robin Aitken, cracked a four-year Canadian domination of the senio men's gold medal. The winners were undefeated in eight games.
"It's my first time out with the blue jersey on my back," said the towering Prentice. "It feels great."
Hackner and third Rick Lang combined to win two world championships in the 1980s. The second was at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow in 1985.
"I was there and I watched (Hackner)," said Prentice, who said he was not intimidated by his opponent's mystique. "When you play, you're up against the man, not the name - they're just four guys, really."
Meldahl, with Ann-Catrin Kjerr, Birgitta Törn, Inger Berg and Sylvia Liljefors, lost her first two games of the competition and then won nine of the next 10. In the final, the Swedes stormed from a 3-0 deficit to outscore the Canadian team 8-2 in the final six frames.
"She had the pressure on her," said Meldahl. "I thought we played well, with the speed and the stick."
Dunn, with Lindy Marchuk, Gloria Campbell, Carol Thomson and Fran Todd, won the bronze medal in 2005 after gold victories in 2002 and 2004.
Playing with Hackner and Lang were "Big" Al Laine and Brian Adams.
Göran Roxin of Sweden earlier won the bronze medal by defeating Geoff Goodland of the U.S. 7-6 with a deuce in the final end. Pam Oleinik of the U.S. claimed the women's bronze with four in the final end for a 12-8 decision against 2005 champion Carolyn Morris of Scotland.
In earlier semi-finals, Canada beat Scotland 8-6 and Sweden dumped the United States 7-3. In earlier tiebreakers, Scotland drummed out Renate Nedkoff of Switzerland 5-3 after the Swiss edged Glynnice Lauder of England 10-9.
Next year's World Seniors will be held in March 2008 in Vierumäki, Finland, in tandem with the first-ever World Mixed Doubles Championships.
All the results and the final standings are found here for the men and the women.
