Norway win gold at inaugural World Mixed Curling Championship

Norway have made history by winning gold at the inaugural World Mixed Curling Championship 2015 in Berne, Switzerland today (Saturday 19 September).

For all the events results and standings, http://worldcurling.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0241c8190a96a3d4afd003317&id=4c6bd7c58c&e=23d1572579

The Norwegians, skipped by Steffen Walstad and made up of third Julie Molnar, second Sander Roelvaag and lead Pia Trulsen, won their game 5-3 against Scandinavian rivals Sweden. Sweden were skipped by Rasmus Wrana and included third Zandra Flyg, second Joakim Flyg and lead Johanna Heldin.

Following their victory Walstad said: "The whole team was a little tense in the quarter-finals but today we found our play. The final happened to be our best game.

"I didn’t feel we were ever in any trouble and the Swedes didn’t play as well as they have this week. I’m really happy to win."

Sweden takes home silver medals, while China also made it onto the podium, winning the bronze medal game against Russia, 5-4.

Swedish skip Wrana said: "I am disappointed, we didn’t get our game going and we didn’t get behind the guards so we gave them some easy shots unfortunately.

"Norway are a very tough team, but we knew we had a really good shot against them. I think we had an edge before the game, but we didn’t get going."

In the first end Wrana delivered a perfectly weighted double takeout and minimised Norway’s scoring potential, but not enough to stop Walstad drawing to the button with his last stone and taking two points.

Sweden blanked the second end, but then had a single point stolen from them in the third.

Just before the fourth end break Sweden came back after two well executed shots from their skip. First, Wrana hit a triple takeout to clear the house of Norwegian stones, but his last stone, swept by three team members edged an inch past Norway’s counting stone, in the 12-foot ring. This gave Sweden their first two points of the game.

Norway blanked the fifth end, before winning another two points in the sixth, which had to be confirmed by a measure.

Sweden took only one point in the seventh end. With the score 5-3 Norway simply kept the house clean and ran the Swedes out of stones for a 5-3 win in the eighth end.

It took Russia all the way to the sixth end to get on the scoreboard of their bronze game against China when they managed to level the score at 2-2.

In the seventh end the Chinese took two points, but the Russians managed to level the score again in the eighth to go to an extra end. The game was won by China who scored one point in the ninth end.

The results from the semi-finals earlier in the day were:

Sweden 6-5 Russia

China 3-7 Norway

For more information, contact:

Cameron MacAllister

Communications & Media Relations Manager

media@worldcurling.org

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only