World of Sport

CURLING

James Craik and his team will return to Forfar with a bronze medal, after pipping Germany 6-5 in yesterday’s third-place play-off at the World Junior Curling Championships in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

Friday’s semi-final defeat to Switzerland may have dashed their title hopes, but Angus Bryce, Blair Haswell, Mark Watt and skip Craik shrugged off the disappointment and found enough energy to play their 11th game of the week.

The Scots beat Sixten Totzek’s German rink 5-4 last Monday, and yesterday’s re-match proved equally tight.

A three at the seventh end put Team Craik 5-3 up and the lead then grew to three shots. But Totzek cut the deficit to 6-5 and forced Craik to blank the last-end to clinch victory.

“It’s amazing to win bronze!” said Craik.

“It might not be the colour we were dreaming of. But to walk away with a medal is unbelievable.

“The team has dug in and stuck with me, and I couldn’t ask for a better unit to have around me.”

SQUASH

Scotland’s top squash player, Greg Lobban, will face world champion Tarek Momen at the Canada Cup in Toronto after winning his first-round match in three straight games.

Lobban beat Spaniard Edmon Lopez 11-8, 11-5, 11-2 to book a glamour last-16 tie with the top seed from Cairo.

Nine-time Scottish champion Alan Clyne battled back from two games down against Pakistan’s Tayyab Aslam before losing 11-7 in a fifth-game decider.

TENNIS

Arbroath’s Jonny O’mara and partner, El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo, narrowly failed to pull off a massive shock in the semi-finals of the Delray Beach Open in Florida last night.

The unseeded duo took the opening set against top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan, but the legendary US twins battled back to win 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 10-4 as they stayed on course for their 119th title together.

O’mara and Arevalo also lost in the semis at last week’s New York Open.