Canada scores late, defeats Norway for world mixed curling bronze medal

Canada scored twice in the seventh end and another in the eighth to edge Norway 4-3 and capture the bronze medal at the world mixed curling championship Saturday.

In the eighth, Norway’s Steffen Walstad was light with his last draw attempt. That gave Canada the steal of one and provided Felix Asselin’s team from suburban Montreal with its winning margin.

“I felt like our play was good in the bronze medal game,” said second Emile Asselin. “The level of difficulty was definitely higher [Saturday] compared to the rest of our week.

“I’m incredibly proud of the way we played as a team, stayed focus and supportive and gave it all we had.”

The bronze was Canada’s first in this event and increased is overall medal total to five. Since the tournament’s inception in 2015, Canadian rinks have won three gold, one silver and now a bronze.

“We’re really proud to be bringing home a medal for Canada after a great week here in Scotland,” said lead Emily Riley. “It’s a week we will all cherish, and it was amazing to have this experience here together.”

Canada was relegated to the bronze-medal match after dropping a 7-4 semifinal decision to Sweden. The Swedes went on to capture the championship, downing Spain 8-2 in six ends in the final.

“It’s always a bit odd to walk away with a bronze medal,” said Asselin. “Obviously we woke up this morning aiming for nothing else than the gold medal but it’s also great to know that we walked away with only one loss and a bronze medal.

“It might take a bit of time to sink in, but we are all proud of the week we had and how we represented the Maple Leaf. We left absolutely everything out there.”

Sweden emphatically broke a 2-2 tie with Spain by scoring three in both the fifth and six ends.

Canada reached the semifinals with a 7-3 win over Australia on Friday.

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