Curling: Scots win world championship gold after final-game thriller

HANNAH Fleming and her Scottish women’s team beat the Czech Republic by 6-5 after an extra end to win gold at the World Junior Championships in Ostersund Sweden yesterday, and later Kyle Smith’s men took bronze for Scotland, beating Norway by 7-3 in their play-off game.

The Scottish women had last stone advantage at the start of their final, but it was the Czechs who scored first, stealing a single point in the second end when Scottish skip Fleming wrecked on the way into the house with her last stone.

However, the Scots made amends in the third when, after splitting the house, Fleming produced a good hit and stick to score two.

After this, the game ebbed and flowed until the Scots blanked the eighth and Fleming produced a really delicate tap-out at the back of the house to score two in the ninth for a 5-3 lead.

A missed peel by Fleming in the tenth gave the Czechs the chance to score two and force the extra end.

The tense 11th end eventually came down to Fleming hitting out one Czech counter and staying inside another, which she just managed, to score one, win the game and take the world crown.

The Scotland team – skip Fleming, Lauren Gray, Alice Spence, lead Abigail Brown, all supported by fifth player Jennifer Martin and coach Debbie Knox – topped the rankings at the end of the round-robin and defeated the Czech team three times during the week to emerge as deserved champions.

Afterwards, Fleming said: “World champion? It sounds very good. It’s what we’ve been working hard for all season and I’m really chuffed.” She added: “I only finally believed we were going to win when my stone stopped on the last shot. I knew the extra end was going to come down to my last one. I wasn’t enjoying it very much, but I know that I had to do it and it worked out in the end.”

In the men’s games, Canada won the gold medal with a one-sided 10-4 win over Sweden, while the Scottish men battled to bronze.

The breakthrough in this game came in the seventh end, when the Scots – skip Smith, third Thomas Muirhead, second Kyle Waddell, lead Kerr Drummond, with fifth player Hamilton McMillan and coach Robin Halliday – scored three for a 7-2 lead.

Norwegian skip Markus Hoiberg had a complete miss with his first and was facing four Scottish counters with his second. After this, Scottish skip Smith hit for three. The Norwegians could only score one in the eighth and then conceded.

Afterwards, Smith said: “We’re absolutely delighted to medal – that was our goal at the start of the week, so we’re happy.

“We knew that the gold was gone yesterday, so we just had to focus on what we could get today, and that’s what we’ve done.”