Switzerland routs Italy for bronze at men's curling worlds

OTTAWA — Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller capped a strong week at the world men's curling championship with a bronze medal Sunday.

The top seed in the six-team playoffs, Schwaller walloped Italy's Joel Retornaz 11-3 in the third-place game at TD Place.

"The field was very strong and the teams are so in form," Schwaller said. "To (win a) medal in a field like this is not a gimme at all. So we're quite happy to have a medal."

Switzerland led the round-robin standings at 11-1 but fell to Canada's Brad Gushue in the semifinals Saturday night.

Italy, meanwhile, was coming off an extra-end semifinal loss to Scotland's Bruce Mouat.

Gushue, from St. John's, N.L., was scheduled to play Scotland later Sunday in the final.

Schwaller scored a deuce in the second end and pulled away with multiple-point steals.

Retornaz knocked out his own stone in the fifth end to give Switzerland three more points and an 8-0 lead.

"They played well and we didn't play as good as they did," Retornaz said. "We took a lot of risks and it didn't pay off."

Italy finally got on the board with a pair in the sixth end, but Switzerland replied with three points in the seventh.

Both teams hammed it up for the crowd with some trick shots to reach the eight-end minimum.

Gushue won his lone world men's title in 2017 in Edmonton. He lost last year's final to Sweden's Niklas Edin in Las Vegas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2023.

Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.