Home crowd cheer Robin on to silver
Juniors take world final to extra end showdown
Fair City curler Robin Brydone picked up a memorable World Junior Championships silver medal on Saturday afternoon.
The former Perth High School student lost out 6-5 in a nerve-wracking final against Canada while playing vice-skip for Scotland’s representatives Team Whyte.
Having moved through the group stage unbeaten, Robin and Co headed into the knockout phase with confidence to defeat Switzerland in the semifinal.
But the Canadians proved to be a step too far this time around, with an extra end required to separate the teams in front of a bumper home crowd at Curl Aberdeen.
Perth’s Duncan McFadzean was alternate for Team Whyte but played his part in the success during the group stage format.
Silver was special for Robin, who said: “The way the team performed all week was phenomenal.
“We set out a few key goals we wanted to focus on throughout the week and it really helped us to go out there and perform the way we did.
“We were obviously happy to go unbeaten in the round robin, giving us the psychological advantage of not having a loss.
“But we knew that teams were going to throw everything at us in the play-offs. Everything that had happened before no longer mattered apart from the games ahead.
“We were struggling to string a few shots together in the middle few ends but the Canadians just came out firing.
“They made a lot of runbacks which proved to be the difference maker. Right now we are still hurting after the final. We went out there to win the gold.
“But to know that we have gone out and achieved something that not many people can say they have done is phenomenal.
“Playing on home soil is possibly the best thing I have ever done. There was so much excitement in the arena.
“To have the crowd behind us the whole way definitely helped us to achieve what we did.
“There are many moments that I’ll remember but playing in front of that crowd is one of them.”
Skip Ross Whyte added: “We just weren’t as sharp as we’d been all week. Unfortunately we didn’t turn out and shoot the lights out.
“The Canada boys really played well.
“They put us under a lot of pressure and we really struggled to make twos.
“But we’re really proud of what we’ve done this week.
Team Whyte with Perth’s Robin Brydone (second in from the right) and Duncan McFadzean (second from left) The boys played really well throughout the whole week and really made my job easy.
“I’m really glad that they’ve done that and that we came out here and proved ourselves as a team. It happens and we’re just pleased that we’ve got that silver medal.”
Robin’s season shows no sign of slowing down.
He said: “There is no down time right now. I have a couple practices this week as well as gym sessions.
“Then I head back up to compete in the Aberdeen International, which is a men’s World Curling Tour event.
“The week after that I then have a mixed doubles competition down in Dumfries.”