SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland – It's a story that's been repeated many times before CanadaThe men's curling team since its last world title.
A trip to the final and a loss to Niklas Edin.
Eden won his seventh world title on Sunday – a record for passing – by driving Sweden with a close 6-5 win over Canadian Brad Gushue and his team from St. John's, New Delhi, in the final of this year's World Men's Curling Championship.
“It's an indescribable feeling, a very good feeling after this week,” said Eden, who went 11-1 in the preliminary round before winning both of his qualifying matches. “I felt like we played well all week, and obviously it did.” “It will be a tough match (in the final).”
Canada won its last world title in 2017 when Joshu beat Edin 4-2 in the final in Edmonton.
Eden has won five of the last six world championships since then — no championship in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — with four of those wins coming via Canadian jumps. Three came against Gushue, the other at the expense of Kevin Koe in 2019.
Gushue has now settled for silver in four of the six tournaments since the tournament, including the last three. In addition to his three losses to Eden, he lost 9-3 to Scottish Bruce Mowatt in last year's final in Ottawa.
“For the fourth time, silver is bad,” Ghosho said. “To be second in the world, we have to be proud of what we did, but it is disappointing.”
“This is four (recent losses) in a row for me and I'm sure at some point down the road I'll appreciate it more than I do now, but right now it's hard to take.”
The two teams went into the end tied at 5-5, with Eden having the final shot.
He made it count, scoring in a hard-fought draw to give him a record title win.
“We battled, hit a lot of shots and forced them to play a very difficult shot,” Ghoshui said. “I think that's a shot he probably misses more than he hits, to be honest. Credit to him, he hit a great shot and there's no better way for him to win a world championship, but it's too bad for us.”
Sweden took an early lead with two points in the second end and one steal in the third.
Canada fought back, and its two-point ninth finish paved the way for a dramatic 10th-place finish.
“When we were 3-0 down and you were going to tell me we were going to give them the chance to win, I think we probably would have accepted that, to be quite honest,” Gushue said.
Canada, which also has second-place EJ Harnden and Jeff Walker topping its list, was looking to sweep the men's and curling titles after Ottawa's Rachel Homan won the women's championship last month in Sydney, N.S.
The last time Canada achieved the feat was also in 2017, when Homan won the women's championship along with the Gushue title.
In the bronze medal match of this year's tournament, ItalyJoel Retornaz scored three goals in the ninth end and stole one in the 10th minute in a 7-6 win over Scotland.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2024.
Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. The previous version had Gushue finishing in silver for two years in a row instead of three.
