Sweden win 361º World Men’s Curling Championship 2018
© WCF / Richard Gray
Las Vegas, United States
Sunday 8 April 2018
Sweden beat Canada by 7-3 to win the title and gold medals at the 361° World Men’s Curling Championship 2018 in the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, United Sates on Sun day (8 April) evening.
The Swedish gold medal winners were skip Niklas Edin, third Orskar Eriksson (who both win their third world titles), second player Rasmus Wranaa and lead Christoffer Sundgren, supported by alternate Henrik Leek and coach Fredrik Lindberg.
The Canadian silver medal team were skip Brad Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second player Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker, supported by alternate Tom Sallows and coach Jules Owchar.
After two blank ends, Sweden’s skip Niklas Edin opened the scoring in the third end with a hit on a Canadian stone for two points. In the fourth end, Canada’s skip Brad Gushue came up short with his final draw attempt to allow Sweden to steal two more points for a 4-0 lead.
Gushue then missed a double take out attempt in the fifth end, to give up another single point steal and push the score-line to 5-0 for Sweden at the break.
In the sixth end, Edin played a precision double take out with his first stone to empty the house of Canadian stones, but Canada finally got onto the score board in this end when their skip Gushue played a nose-hit, for one point that reduced Sweden’s lead to 5-1.
Sweden added to their score in the seventh end when Edin hit out a Canadian stone to increase his team’s lead to 7-1. Canada then conceded after scoring two more point in the eighth end for a final score of 7-3 to Sweden, who then started their celebrations.
During the closing ceremony, it was announced that Markus Hoeiberg, third player for Norway, was the winner of the Collie Campbell Award, voted for by all the players to recognise the player they think best exemplified curling's values and sportsmanship throughout the event.
Also, at the closing ceremony, it was announced that the total spectator attendance for the event was just under 75,000.
They said it
Niklas Edin; skip, Sweden (after 7-3 gold medal game win over Canada): “World champion – sounds amazing to me and we’ve got a couple of guys who haven’t won it before, it’s just amazing. For the team to really be on top after the Olympic loss and losing the world final last year is great.
“We played good all week and I’m just thrilled to have won a worlds again. We tried to keep up our game and not make any silly mistakes. We did that, so they had no chance of getting back after they lost that stolen two. I’m really happy with the win and the way the boys have played all week. This week has been the most exhausting week I can remember.”
Brad Gushue; skip, Canada (after winning silver medals): “Obviously, we’re really disappointed. It wasn’t our best effort. Niklas and his team played great today. The only positive we can look at is even if we’d played well today, they still would have won. They were certainly the best team today. They’re probably the toughest team in the world to get back against. We came here to win, but Niklas and his team are certainly deserving. Second in the world is pretty good but it’s short of what we were hoping for.”
Bronze medal game result: Scotland 11-4 Korea
Gold medal game result: Canada 3-7 Sweden
Standings after bronze medal gameG Sweden 13-1
S Canada 11-4
B Scotland 12-2
Korea 8-6
Norway 7-6
United States 6-7
Switzerland 6-6
Russia 5-7
Italy 5-7
Netherlands 4-8
Japan 3-9
China 3-9
Germany 1-11
To engage with the World Curling Federation on social media in the build to the 361º
World Men's Curling Championship 2018 follow it on Twitter, Instagram (@worldcurling) and Facebook (/WorldCurlingFederation) and use the hashtags when posting: #WMCC2018 #curling
