10 April 2023
Scotland win World Men’s gold
Scotland beat Canada by 9-3 in Sunday afternoon’s final of the BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championship, staged in Ottawa, Canada, to claim gold medals and the world title.
After a blank opening end, Scotland skip Bruce Mouat played a double take-out in the second end to open the scoring with two points, for a 2-0 lead. Then in the third end, Canada’s skip Brad Gushue was facing three Scottish counters sitting in the house when he played his final draw, which was too heavy, and the Canadians gave up a steal of two points to increase Scotland’s lead to 4-0.
Canada got on the scoreboard in the fourth end when Gushue played a hit and roll, to score one point and reduce the Scottish lead to 4-1. In the fifth end, Scotland’s Mouat had a draw-shot, to score two points and take a 6-1 lead into the break.
Canada then scored two points in the sixth end when skip Gushue scored two points with a draw, to reduce the Scottish lead to 6-3.
After a blank end in the seventh, Scottish skip Mouat played a hit and stay in the eighth end, to score three points and move onto a 9-3 lead. Canada then conceded to give Scotland the world title.
Afterwards, Scotland skip Mouat said, “That was unreal! I didn’t expect the final to go that way, but I’m just so proud of everyone who’s been part of our team, I’m over the moon.”
Speaking about his early lead, he said, “It made me more nervous than anything. We had to defend that lead, and it made things a bit more anxious for me, but I managed to keep my cool, I think.”
“It was amazing. We shot the lights out. We knew we need an A+ game to win a world final and that’s what we said this morning.”
Speaking about the Canadian fans, he added, “It’s been an absolute pleasure to play in front of this crowd. I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life, not just this world title, but the atmosphere that was created in there, it’s giving me goosebumps, I’m very excited.”
For his part, Canada’s skip Brad Gushue said, “I changed the momentum by going up a steal of two, and when you’re down by 4-0 to a team of Bruce’s calibre, your odds are not good. They played an incredible game. Even if we’d played our best, it might not have been good enough, the way they played.”
At the fifth end break of the gold medal game, inductees to the Curling Hall of Fame were honoured. The inductees included Ian Tetley and Jack Lynch. Tetley said, “This is a pretty prestigious honour. You play your whole career, and you never think about going into the Hall of Fame. You’re truly grateful for your team-mates. They taught me the reins.”
Following the medal presentations, Chief Umpire Brett Waldroff awarded the Collie Campbell Memorial Award to New Zealand skip, Anton Hood.
Hood expressed his gratitude for the award saying, “I think it’s credit to our team, to our values and the way we play the game. It means that we focus on the traditional values of the game and that’s something that we hold strong in our hearts in New Zealand.”
Reflecting on this experience, Hood stated, “We’ve learned lots, and we’ll be taking that and putting them into actions in the next season. Watch out, I guess!”.
The medal teams were:
(Gold) Scotland; Bruce Mouat (skip), Grant Hardie (third), Bobby Lammie (second), Hammy McMiIlan (lead, Kyle Waddell (alternate), Michael Goodfellow (coach)
(Silver) Canada: Brad Gushue (skip), Mark Nichols (third), E.J. Harnden (second), Geoff Walker (lead), Ryan Harnden (alternate), Caleb Flaxey (coach)
(Bronze) Switzerland: Benoit Schwarz (fourth), Yannick Schwaller (third and skip), Sven Michel (second); Pablo Lachat (lead), Haarvard Van Petersson (coach)
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
