Curling: Scots hold their nerve to win world bronze

The medal play-off was the third time that Scotland and USA had faced each other during the competition, both having won once previously, and, just as in the previous games, it stayed close throughout.

Warwick Smith's rink started with last-stone advantage and blanked the first two ends before opening the scoring with a single steal in the third.

USA responded in the fourth, scoring two, and, after blanking the fifth, the Scots moved ahead with two shots in the sixth end.

USA then scored one in the seventh and followed that up with a steal of one in the eighth when skip Smith, who was facing five USA counters, rolled his last stone.

In the ninth, Scottish third David Smith nudged a guard on the way in with his last stone but sat on the button. His stone stayed there for the rest of the end to give Scotland the one shot needed to tie the game at 4-4.

In a tense tenth end, David Smith once again produced a peach of a shot, hitting and rolling behind cover. Eventually, USA skip Pete Fenson was heavy and wide with his attempted pick-out shot to hand Scotland a steal of two, a 6-4 victory, and the bronze medals.

Warwick Smith said: "That was really tough. There're a good team and they hang on, you never really get away from them."

Speaking about the tenth end in particular, he added: "Smithie played an absolute stinger in the tenth, and he hates that shot too. I said 'are you happy with this?' – he said 'not really', but he plays it so well.

"Any medal at world level is fantastic. We came here trying to win gold, but once that dream is over, which was Saturday, you've got to re-focus.

All the guys were right up for it today.

" The worst thing in the world is having as good a season as we've had and win nothing. I've been in his shoes (USA skip Pete Fenson) in '98 and you just don't want to be there."

Fenson said: "We would have liked a different ending. We didn't finish out as strong as we'd have liked. Warwick played great again, and you gotta play great in this type of game to win it."

Later, in his first appearance at this level, Canada's Kevin Koe took gold, beating Norway by 9-3 in what was a one-sided final.

The Canadians took the early advantage, scoring three in the first end, and this set the tone for the rest of the game. Eventually, Norway's Torger Nergard conceded after the eighth end with the score at 9-3 to Canada.