Curling in Russia - 2010 World Men's Curling Championship. Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

From 3 to 11 of april 2010 in Italy, Cartina D'Ampezzo, take place 51st World Men's Curling Championship 2010.

It is the first time that a World Men's Curling Championship has been staged in Italy. In 2009 Cortina hosted the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship at the Ice Stadium which hosted the 1956 Olympic Winter Games.

Twelve teams from around the world are set to compete in the nine day competition: Host nation Italy, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

Five of the team line ups for Cortina are the same as those that represented their nations at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. They include: Olympic silver medallists from Norway Thomas Ulsrud and his team, Germany's Andreas Kapp, France's Thomas Dufour, China's Fengchun Wang and Ulrik Schmidt's team from Denmark.

Bronze medallist from Turin, the USA's Pete Fensen returns to the World Championship stage after winning the US nationals. The Japanese will be led by Makoto Tsuruga who skipped Japan to a 5th place finish at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano in 1998.

Canada will be represented by Kevin Koe who makes his first appearance at a Men's World Championship after beating Glenn Howard in the final of the Canadian National Men's Championship v The Brier - at the beginning of March.

The reigning world men's champion is Scotland. David Murdoch and his team who won gold in Moncton Canada last year, were defeated by Warwick Smith in the 2010 Scottish Nationals. Murdoch comes to Cortina as alternate for Smith's team.

Sweden is represented by Per Carlsen who beat European Champion Niklas Edin in the Swedish nationals for the place in Cortina. The Swiss team will be led by Stefan Karnusian and Joel Retornaz skip the Italian host nation team.

Day by Day:

03.04.2010 (Saturday) Day 1:
16:00 (here and after Moscow time)
A

Sweden -

France 1-5
B

China -

Germany 4-5
C

Japan -

Italy 6-7 (EE)
D

Norway -

Scotland 4-5
Scotland’s Warwick Smith opened against Norway and had a 5-4 win, although the Norwegians, silver medallists at the recent Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, were forced into a last-minute line-up change when skip Thomas Ulsrud had to return home to Norway when his wife became ill.

Чемпионат Мира начался!

21:00
A

Italy -

China 6-7 (EE)
B

Canada -

USA 6-3
C

Switzerland -

Denmark 3-9
D

Japan -

Germany 3-9
Andy Kapp followed up an opening 5-4 win over China with a 9-3 defeat of Japan, thanks largely to a score of five in the ninth end, after which Japan conceded. By contrast, this was Japan’s second loss of the day as they had earlier gone down to hosts Italy by 6-7.
Other opening day winners included Canada’s Kevin Koe, making his debut at this level. He beat USA by 6-3 after giving up a steal of one in the first end.
Afterwards, Koe said, “It’s nice to get off to a good start, especially with this being our first Worlds. It was a good win for us because we had a bit of a shaky start. But I thought in the second half of the game we were good”.
Also winning on the first day we\re France’s Thomas Dufour, who beat Sweden by 5-1, and Denmark’s Johnny Frederiksen, who had a 9-3 victory over Switzerland.

04.04.2010 (Sunday) Day 2:
11:00
Behind the two unbeaten leaders, five teams are tied in third, with two wins and one loss v China, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Norway, while three teams have yet to record wins v Japan, Sweden and Switzerland all suffering three losses so far.
A X
B

Scotland -

Sweden 8-4
C

Norway -

France 9-3
D X

16:00
A

USA -

Switzerland 7-5
B

Germany -

Italy 5-6
C

China -

Japan 8-6
D

Canada -

Denmark 8-3
On Sunday afternoon Canada's Kevin Koe had a one-sided six-end 8-3 win over Denmark's Johnny Frederiksen, scoring four in the third end and a further three in the fifth, each time playing some delicate shots. However, afterwards, Koe complained that his team was still suffering from jet-lag, saying, "I feel like we're getting it, but it just doesn't feel like we're all there yet", he said. "I think we're still struggling with the travel. A couple of us that came later are waking up at one or two in the morning and not getting to sleep again, so by the time you hit the actual game, you're pretty tired. But I'm happy with the way we're playing and as another day or two goes on we'll feel back to normal".

21:00
A

France -

Scotland 6-8
B

Switzerland -

Canada 5-9
Koe's team was made to fight all the way against Switzerland, coming from behind when he lost a three in the seventh end, before responding with a three of his own in the eighth and a steal of two in the ninth for his eventual 9-5 win.
C

Denmark -

USA 9-7
D

Sweden -

Norway 4-7
Scotland's Warwick Smith scored fives in each of his Sunday games. Against Sweden the teams were tied at 2-2 after five when Sweden's Per Carlsen was long and through with his final draw in the sixth, leaving Smith with a straightforward draw for five and a 7-2 lead, which the Scots eventually turned into an 8-4 win after nine.

05.04.2010 (Monday) Day 3:
12:00
A

Norway -

Japan 7-4
B

Scotland -

China 8-3
C

Sweden -

Italy 7-6 (EE)
D

France -

Germany 6-9

15:00
A

China -

Denmark 4-8
B

Japan -

USA 1-6
C

Germany -

Switzerland 3-4
D

Italy -

Canada 5-7
Canada's Kevin Koe eventually produced a nose-hit for one point and a 7-5 win in the tenth.

20:00
A

Canada -

Sweden 8-4
B

Switzerland -

France 5-4
C

USA -

Norway 4-6
In Norway's game against the USA in evening, Torger Nergard had a lead of three at the halfway point. Pete Fensen's side got a single in the sixth end, then stole two in the seventh to tie the game. Norway got two shots over the next two ends and ran USA out of stones in the final end to win the game 6-4.
D

Denmark -

Scotland 4-7
Warwick Smith's Scotland had an 8-3 morning win over China, which ended when China's Riu Liu wrecked with his final shot of the eighth when he looked more likely to score four. Scotland then had a 7-4 victory over Denmark's Ulrik Schmidt in the evening session.
Germany's Andreas Kapp had a mixed day, beating France by 9-6 before going down to Switzerland by 3-4. These results mean that the Germans are sitting mid-table.

06.04.2010 (Tuesday) Day 4:
12:00
A

USA -

France 7-5
B

Denmark -

Switzerland 10-4
C

Canada -

Scotland 6-2
D

Switzerland -

Norway 1-7
In the morning session, Canada's Kevin Koe blew away Scotland Warwick Smith by 6-2 in just six ends. The Scots never got to grips with this game, and afterwards, Skip Smith said, "We decided to bin that one and start again. If you get that far down against a great team like Canada, you're as well getting off the ice to start preparing for the next game". And the tactic proved effective as the Scots went on to beat Germany by 7-4.

17:00
A

Scotland -

Germany 7-4
B

Norway -

Italy 10-5
C

France -

China 9-4
D

Sweden -

Japan 9-5
Norway had two good wins, beating Switzerland by 7-1 and then grabbing a 10-5 win over hosts Italy. After the Switzerland game, Torger Nergard, who has been skipping Norway in the absence of incapacitated Thomas Ulsrud, said, "We started off a bit rusty but after a couple of bad ends we played pretty good. But we will always do our best, even if Thomas is here or not".

22:00
A

Italy -

Switzerland 5-7
B

Germany -

Canada 9-6
C

Japan -

Denmark 6-7 (EE)
D

China -

USA 5-6
The Germans came back on in the evening against Canada, and succeeded where Scotland couldn't, handing Canada their first loss of the week, by 9-6.
Afterwards a pleased German skip Andreas Kapp said, "It's always nice to win against Canada, but it's more important for us just to keep contact with the top. Maybe they didn't expect that we would play the same aggressive way as they play. The game was fun, and at the end, if you win 9-6 against Canada it's good".
USA's Pete Fenson also had a tense day, but produced two good wins to keep his play-off hopes alive. He beat France by 7-5 after an extra end before going on to seal a last-stone 6-5 win over China in the evening with a nerveless final draw.
"It was a tight match", said French Skip Thomas Dufour after their game in the morning against the USA "Since the beginning of the championship we've not been playing too badly, but it's incredible we just can't manage to win more games." France later went on to beat China 9-4 in afternoon draw.
Another team that won twice on Tuesday was Denmark v 10-4 against a Swedish team that lost skip Per Carlsen with a tweaked back, and the by 7-6 after an extra end against Japan. Commenting, Danish coach James Dryburgh said, "The boys just have to get their heads around it and keep on going. We've got the teams that are below us now so if we keep ourselves in a good frame of mind, we should be OK".

07.04.2010 (Wednesday) Day 5:
12:00
A

Japan -

Canada 3-12
B

China -

Switzerland 7-2
C

Italy -

USA 5-8
D

Germany -

Denmark 9-7 (EE)
Canada's Kevin Koe disposed of the Japan challenge early on, scoring four in the first end and stealing three in the second on his way to a 12-3 win.
After this game, Koe said, "That was a good win. I was happy we got right back on the ice this morning after that game last night (their first loss, to Germany). That wasn't our best game and so we were looking forward to getting back out here today and starting to play well. We played a really good first end".
Germany won 9-7 in extra end over Denmark in Wednesday's morning session and dented Kapp's attempts to keep his medal campaign going. However, Kapp still believes a Page Play-off slot is possible. He said, "They (Norway) had a big four in the fourth end and we couldn't do anything against it. Tomorrow we have USA and Sweden, two wins and we still have a chance, maybe through a tie-breaker. We're confident for tomorrow, we're confident always".

17:00
A

Denmark -

Norway 3-5
B

USA -

Scotland 7-5
C

Switzerland -

Sweden 7-5
D

Canada -

France 7-1
Koe followed that up with an equally dominant 7-1 victory over France, this time scoring three in the first end and one in the second.
Like Germany, USA are battling to keep their medal hopes alive, and after their win over Scotland, skip Pete Fenson said, "We've won four in a row now and we're playing pretty good but there's room for improvement. We know we need to win seven or eight to lock down a play-off spot".

22:00
A

Sweden -

China 6-4
B

France -

Japan 7-4
C

Norway -

Germany 8-3
D

Scotland -

Italy 10-4
Norway share the same won eight, lost one record as the Canadians, thanks to a further two good wins on Wednesday, following up their 5-3 win over Denmark with an evening 8-3 defeat of Germany-s Andreas Kapp (5-4).
Scotland were like a changed side when they came out to face Italy, as skip Warwick Smith explained. "That was a real knuckle-down. We got a talking to after the last game and we came out with different tactics and played an all-round better game. We created some chances in the second half and thankfully we capitalised on them".
For his part, Italian skip Joel Retornaz was clearly frustrated at his team's loss. "We start very well, we dominate the first part of the game, then we have a black out. I don't know what goes through our minds and we just give up. It seems we are afraid to keep fighting or are afraid to win against teams that are probably better than us on the paper".

08.04.2010 (Thursday) Day 6:
12:00
A

Germany -

USA 4-8
B

Italy -

Denmark 5-6
C

China -

Canada 3-9
D

Japan -

Switzerland 9-7

17:00
A

France -

Italy 8-9
B

Sweden -

Germany 8-2
C

Scotland -

Japan 7-6
D

Norway -

China 6-3

22:00
A

Switzerland -

Scotland 9-7
B

Canada -

Norway 8-9
C

Denmark -

France 6-4
D

USA -

Sweden 10-2

09.04.2010 (Friday) Day 7:
21:00. Play-Offs 1v2
B

Canada -

Norway 11-5

10.04.2010 (Saturday) Day 8:
12:00. Play-Offs 3v4
B

USA -

Scotland 6-4

18:30. Semi Final
B

Scotland -

Norway 7-9

11.04.2010 (Sunday) Day 9:
12:00. Bronze Medal Game
B

USA -

Scotland 4-6
The bronze medal play-off was a closer game. Eventually, in a tense tenth end, Scottish third David Smith 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.

Afterwards, Warwick Smith said, "That was really tough. There're a good team and they hang on, you never really get away from them". Reflecting on the campaign, he said, "Any medal at world level is fantastic. Obviously we came here trying to win gold, but once that dream is over, which was yesterday, you've got to re-focus yourself and say -this is the one for us-. All the guys were right up for it today. The worst thing in the world is having a good 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".

After the game USA skip Pete 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".

18:00. Gold Medal Game
C

Canada -

Norway 9-3
Canada's Kevin Koe and his team of Blake MacDonald, Carter Rycroft, Nolan Theissen and alternate Jamie King, won gold at the Capital One World Men-s Curling Championship with a one-sided 9-3 victory over Norway in Sunday afternoon's final in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Norway and Canada had topped the ranking after the round-robin, and the final was the third time they had met during the Championship, with Norway winning during the round-robin and Canada being victorious in the Page Play-off between the two. However, Canada were dominant from the off in the final, scoring three in the first end when Koe had a hit and stay for three.

Norway could only score one in the second, and Canada moved further ahead in the third, when Koe had an easy draw for two. The teams swapped singles for the next two ends and then Canada had a single steal in the sixth, for a 7-2 lead. After this, Koe sealed his triumph with a further two points in the eighth, when Norway conceded.

This win comes directly on the heels of Koe's win at The Brier on his first trip to the Canadian national championship, and, with his shiny new gold medal round his neck, an elated Koe said, "It's been such a whirlwind last month and a half for us. It's just been an awesome ride for us and I'm just so happy for the guys. This is a pretty good team and now we're world champs - that's something no-one can take away from us".

The final itself was disappointing as a spectacle, with Norway never really able to challenge Canada. Commenting on this, Koe said, "We expected a closer game, they're one of the best teams in the world, but we made some good shots in the first and it was good to get up that three points. They didn't miss much, but we were awesome today. They weren't in trouble till the end of that first end. Blake (MacDonald) made a freeze and then I put up a good one with my first, and that set us up for sure".

Looking around the arena, Koe added, "We play this game all the time, and practise all the time for moments like this, which is pretty special". However he also explained that their celebrations will be short-lived. "We're out of here at three in the morning and then we're going straight to the Players- Championship".

For his part, Norwegian skip Torger Nergard, who went on to win the Collie Campbell sportsmanship award, voted for by his fellow-players, simply said, "You don't want to lose, but these things happen. They played a great game and deserved to win".

Составы выступающих на Чемпионате мира по керлингу 2010 команд

- Germany
Team line-up: Andreas Kapp (skip), Andreas Lang, Holger Hohne, Andreas Kempf, Daniel Herbergg
Coach: Oliver Axnick

- Denmark
Team line-up: Johnny Frederiksen, Ulrik Schmidt (skip), Bo Jensen, Lars Vilandt, Mikkel Poulsen
Coach: James Dryburgh

- Italy
Team line-up: Joel Thierry Retornaz (skip), Silvio Zanotelli, Davide Zanotelli, Julien Michele Genre, Giorgio Da Rin
Coaches: Jean Pierre Rutsche, Fabio Alvera

- Canada
Team line-up: Kevin Koe (skip), Blake MacDonald, Carter Rycroft, Nolan Thiessen, Jamie King
Coaches: John Dunn, Jim Waite

- China
Team line-up: Rui Liu, Fengchun Wang (skip), Xiaoming Xu, Hongchen Li, Jialing Zong
Coach: Wei Zhang

- Norway
Team line-up: Thomas Ulsrud (skip), Torger Nergard, Christoffer Svae, Havard Vad Petersson, Thomas Lovold
Coach: Ole Ingvaldsen

- USA
Team line-up: Pete Fenson (skip), Shawn Rojeski, Joe Polo, Tyler George, Mark Haluptzok
Coach:

- France
Team line-up: Thomas Dufour (skip), Tony Angiboust, Jan Ducroz, Richard Ducroz, Raphael Mathieu
Coach: Andre Ferland

- Switzerland
Team line-up: Stefan Karnusian (skip), Christof Schwaller, Robert Huerlimann, Rolf Iseli, Dominic Andres
Coaches: Lorne Hamblin, Christoph Zysset, Christine Hamblin

- Sweden
Team line-up: Per Carlsen (skip), Nils Carlsen, Eric Carlsen, Mikael Norberg, Niklas Berggren
Coach:

- Scotland
Team line-up: Warwick Smith, David Smith (skip), Craig Wilson, Ross Hepburn, David Murdoch (alternate)
Coach: Alan Smith

- Japan
Team line-up: Makoto Tsuruga (skip), Yuki Sawamukai, Yusaku Shibaya, Ryosuke Haneishi, Ryuya Ishigaki
Coach: Hitoshi Yanagi

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