Scotland rules women’s championship
Single point in 10th end makes difference in final against Sweden
The only previous time that Scotland won the women’s world curling championship was in 2002. Eve Muirhead was 11 at the time.
On Sunday, the now 22-year-old skip played a light tap with the final stone to give Scotland a 6-5 victory against Sweden in the final of the 2013 tournament at Riga’s Volvo Sports Center.
This marks the second consecutive runner-up finish for Swedish skip Margaretha Sigfridsson, whose team lost to Mirjam Ott’s Swiss foursome in last year’s gold-medal match at Lethbridge, Alta.
The Ottawa Curling Club team of Rachel Homan, Emma Miskew, Alison Kreviazuk and Lisa Weagle received their bronze medals from Janis Rudzitis, president of the host Latvian Curling Association.
Muirhead, third Anna Sloan, 23, second Vicki Adams, 23, and lead Claire Hamilton, 24, took a 3-1 lead with a steal of two in the fourth end.
They went ahead again with single points in the sixth and eighth, but each time they were caught by Sigfridsson, the Swedish lead, fourth Maria Prytz, third Christina Bertrup and second Maria Wennerström.
That set up the 10th end. The Swedes managed to get a rock into scoring position, but Muirhead was able to dislodge it for the championship point.
GERMAN WINS SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
German lead Corinna Scholz was presented with the Frances Brodie Award for sportsmanship. Nominations were made by competitors from the 12 teams in the championship.
There has never been a Canadian winner of the award, first presented in 1989.
NEXT YEAR, SAINT JOHN
The 2014 women’s world championship will take place at 6,000-seat Harbour Station arena in Saint John, N.B. There were no representatives from Saint John in Riga, but they will attend the upcoming men’s world championship at Victoria because they’ll be using a model akin to those employed for major Canadian competitions.
The Riga committee of volunteer students and members of the country’s community of 150-200 registered curlers relied on national and municipal government funding. The 1,000-seat Volvo Sports Center was never filled to capacity, but ticket sales for the first evening draw on March 16 surpassed the budgeted total.
SENIOR MEN LOSE
Howard Rajala, Rich Moffatt, Doug Johnston and Ken Sullivan of Ottawa’s Rideau Curling Club lost the Canadian senior men’s championship final at Summerside, P.E.I., 11-3 to Wayne Tallon’s Fredericton team on Sunday. Tallon’s rink will represent. Canada in the men’s portion of the 2014 world senior championship.