Men’s world curling championship in Calgary concludes amid COVID scare

CALGARY

Niklas Edin’s fifth world men’s curling title was memorable not only because of the history the Swede made.

That he and his teammates were able to play in a final Sunday for a third straight crown — another men’s curling record — made achieving both milestones feel even sweeter.

Sweden doubled Scotland’s

Bruce Mouat 10-5 in the championship game in Calgary.

The 2021 BKT Tires and OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championship reached the finish line late Sunday night despite four participants, including an athlete on a playoff team, testing positive for COVID-19.

None showed symptoms of the coronavirus. No games were played Saturday while mass testing was carried out. Alberta Health approved the resumption of Sunday’s playoffs.

“Obviously super, super happy we could keep playing,” Edin said. “It would have felt so awkward if the event had just ended and medals are going somewhere because of a round robin.

“That just wouldn’t have been fair. That wouldn’t have felt good. I’m really happy we could play today.”

Edin and his third Oscar Erikkson are the only two men to win five world championships. Along with second Rasmus Wranaa and lead Christoffer Sundgren, they were the first team to win three in a row.

Canada’s only large-scale sports events since the global pandemic descended just over a year ago have been the world junior men’s hockey championship and last year’s NHL playoffs in Edmonton, and Calgary’s run of seven curling competitions with four now complete.