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Colour them exhausted — both physically and emotionally — after months spent in two different curling bubbles and in different stages of quarantine.
Unfortunately, Canada can’t colour Brad Gushue and Kerri Einarson with a medal after a few weeks in Scotland, competing for the 2021 world mixed doubles curling championship.
The duo leaves the event with fourth-place honours after dropping its last two games in Aberdeen.
“There was no doubt we were tired and not at our best, but we left it all on the ice — and that’s all you could ask for,” said Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue, moments after Sunday’s 7-4 loss in the bronze-medal game to Sweden.
“We’re disappointed not to earn a medal but are proud to have earned the Olympic spot for Canada.”
Indeed, that’s the big positive for the country coming out of the week-long worlds, where Gushue and Einarson needed to qualify for the playoffs to secure Canada a coveted berth in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. They did that with a top-three finish in Pool A round-robin play, which then advanced them to the semifinal with an extra-end win over Switzerland early Saturday.
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But in trying to push through to the championship draw later Saturday, they were defeated by Scotland — for the second time in three days — in that semi.
With a gold-medal then out of reach, the Canucks hoped to salvage a bronze medal out of the competition Sunday at Curl Aberdeen.
But Sweden’s Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson — who came into the worlds looking to defend a title won in 2019 with teammate Anna Hasselborg — had eyes on the third-place prize, as well, and came storming out of the start to count four in the first end and put Canada in chase mode from then on.
“I think it was really important for us (to start strong),” de Val told World Curling TV after the opening frame that saw Einarson miss on a hit-and-roll and her Swedish counterpart draw to the four-foot for the formidable count.
“Tough loss (Saturday in the semifinal to Norway),” continued de Val. “It felt really good for us to go out and have fun and play as good as we can play.
“So very good (start).”
The Canadians tried to counter that in the second end, but in trying to raise a stubborn Swedish stone off the button and score two, their shot came up light, giving them just one in answering Sweden’s hot start.
Another steal of one by Canada in the third end cut the deficit in half, but that was as close as Gushue and Einarson would get against a Scandinavian team that ran undefeated until the semifinal loss.
With last rock in the fourth, Sweden executed a strong set-up to score two on an open draw to build its lead back up to four.
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At 6-2 midway through the bronze-medal match, Canada attempted to get back on track with its power play, but it ended with Einarson drawing just for one and kept Sweden in command.
The sixth saw Sweden elect to use its power play, but again it meant a score of only one after Einarson threw a perfect freeze with her last rock to stymie her foes.
Sweden then put the game out of reach in the seventh end. Trailing by four, Einarson and Gushue were brewing up a potential big end, but that screeched to a halt after a perfectly executed an around-the-horn thrown by de Val and swept by Eriksson. They eliminated two Canadian stones and ricocheted behind cover for shot stone. Canada played a peel-weight raise double-takeout hoping to score two, but the raised rock rolled too far. Canada settled for one to trail by three.
In the eighth end, Sweden ended the game early after executing a double peel on the guards and gave Canada no chance to set up a steal of three.
For Einarson, the fourth-place finish in Aberdeen marks the end of an exhausting extended stay in curling bubbles around the world that opened in Calgary with a win of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts — with her team from Manitoba’s Gimli Curling Club — and the Home Hardware Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship — with Gushue.
Also in Calgary, the super-curler and her four-woman team took home the Princess Auto Players’ Championship — the last of the Grand Slam of Curling events — and then qualified Canada for the women’s curling discipline at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship.
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To cap it off in Scotland, Einarson and Gushue qualified Canada for the mixed doubles event at the 2022 Olympics.
“I’m very proud of how Kerri and I battled throughout the week,” said Gushue, giving praise as well to coaches Scott Pfeifer and Heather Nedohin.
“It’s been an honour to represent Canada twice on the world stage,” Einarson added. “We gave it our absolute all this week, and I couldn’t be more proud of us earning Canada the Olympic spot. We fought hard every game. We may not have played out best at times, but we also never gave up.”
EXTRA END
The mixed doubles world title was won by Scotland’s Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds on Sunday after a dramatic 9-7 win over Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregottem. The decision came down to a measure after Skaslien’s runback of her own rock removed a few rocks in the four-foot and spun to the edge of the circle. Scotland, which counted three to take the lead in the pivotal seventh end, won the measure and the gold medal to give Mouat a world title to go along with his juniors win in 2016 and his Universiade triumph in 2017. For Dodds, it’s her first world title.
Canada wraps up curling's mixed doubles worlds with fourth-place finish - Calgary Sun
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