Mar 8, 2015
Canadian men, women win gold at world junior curling championships
Braden Calvert defeated Switzerland 6-3 to capture the men's title Sunday at the world junior curling championships and Kelsey Rocque completed the Canadian golden sweep with an 8-2 victory over Scotland.
The Canadian Press
TALLINN, Estonia - Braden Calvert defeated Switzerland 6-3 to capture the men's title Sunday at the world junior curling championships and Kelsey Rocque completed the Canadian golden sweep with an 8-2 victory over Scotland.
Calvert and his Winnipeg-based team of Kyle Kurz, Lucas Van Den Bosch and Brendan Wilson shot an impressive 91.5 per cent overall in the final at the Tondiraba Ice Hall. They finished fourth at last year's world championship.
Rocque successfully defended her women's crown to join Scotland's Eve Muirhead as the only female skips to win back-to-back world junior titles. Rocque's Edmonton team included Danielle Schmiemann, Holly Jamieson and Jessica Iles.
In the men's final, Canada picked up a deuce in the second end and stole singles in the fourth and sixth ends. Switzerland finally got on the board in the seventh with a draw for one to the eight-foot.
The teams exchanged deuces before Calvert ran the Swiss side out of rocks in the 10th for the win.
"It's just unbelievable," said Calvert. "When you start the season, you never quite picture that it's going to end up like this.
"It's pretty special to not only bring home a medal, but a gold medal. It's just icing on the cake."
Calvert felt an increased work ethic led to his team's success this year.
"We just beared down and worked a little bit harder going into this season," he said. "We threw a ton of rocks in Winnipeg and it really shows when you get out here."
Scotland took the men's bronze with an 8-3 win over Sweden. Switzerland edged Sweden 7-6 in the women's third-place game.
Rocque, who won with a different team last year in Flims, Switzerland, started to pull away with three points in the fourth end. Canada added three more in the seventh and the rout was on.
"It's really exciting (to win gold) and bring it home to Canada," said Rocque, who was unbeaten in the round robin. "There's honestly no words."
It was the sixth time in world juniors history that Canada has swept the gold medals. The only other nation to win men's and women's gold at the same tournament was Scotland in 1993.
Rocque was undefeated over the week, going 9-0 in the round robin before beating Scotland in the Page playoff game to reach the final. The only other women's team to go unbeaten at this event was Canada's Marliese Miller in 2003.
Calvert suffered only one loss, a round-robin defeat to Russia. The next world junior curling championships will be held March 5-13, 2016 at the Milli Piyango Curling Arena in Erzurum, Turkey.