9 April 2023
Switzerland claim World Men’s bronze medals
Switzerland took the bronze medals, beating Italy 11-3 on Sunday morning in Ottawa, Canada.
After a blank opening end, Switzerland’s Benoit Schwarz tapped out an Italian stone in the second end to score two points.
In the third end, Italy’s Joel Retornaz attempted an angle raise, but gave Switzerland a steal of one and a 3-0 lead. This was the first of three successive steals for the Swiss, who went into the fifth end break with an 8-0 lead.
Italy finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth end with a successful hit to score two points and reduce the Swiss lead to 8-2.
© WCF / Steve Seixeiro
In the seventh end, Switzerland scored three with a draw to take an 11-2 lead. The result was not in doubt as the teams played the mandatory eighth end, entertaining the crowd with a number of novelty deliveries. Eventually, Italy’s Retornaz played a hit to score one point and immediately concede an 11-3 defeat.
Afterwards, Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller said, “For both teams it was very hard to get into the mood to win this. I guess that was the thing that maybe set us apart today.”
He added, “I’m still a bit sore about yesterday, I’m not going to lie, but it’s good to finish on a positive note. To medal in a field like this with so many teams in form feels great – a medal is a medal, and it’s not every day that you win a medal at a world championship.”
The Switzerland bronze medal team is: Benoit Schwarz (fourth), Yannick Schwaller (third and skip), Sven Michel (second); Pablo Lachat (lead), Haarvard Van Petersson (coach)
At the fifth end break, new inductees to the Curling Hall of Fame were announced and presented with awards from World Curling Federation Vice-President Hugh Millikin.
The inductees included Pete Smith, Ewan MacDonald, and Bill Strum, whose son David and grandson Matt accepted the award on his behalf. Ewan MacDonald expressed, “It’s such a great honour to receive such special recognition for the game that we’ve played for so long. You start the journey and don’t know where it’s going to go, so to receive this is the icing on the cake.”
Engage with the World Curling Federation during the BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championship 2023 on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and be searching the hashtags #curling #WMCC2023
