Tyler Tardi successfully completed the defence of his world title when he led his Canadian team to a 9-4 win over Switzerland in Saturday morning91Ƶs men91Ƶs gold medal game at the World Junior Curling Championships 2019 in Liverpool, N.S.
At the same time Scotland took bronze medals, beating Norway by 8-5.
In the gold medal game, the Canadians91Ƶ skip, Tardi, third Sterling Middleton, second Matthew Hall, and lead Alex Horvath 91Ƶ supported by alternate Rylan Kleiter and coach Paul Tardi 91Ƶ blanked the first end and then opened the scoring with two points in the second end.
Switzerland could only score a single point in the third end, then Canada moved further ahead in the fourth when Tardi had an open hit for a score of three points and a 5-1 lead.
In the fifth end, a draw by Swiss skip Marco Hoesli was too heavy and this handed Canada a steal of two more points for a 7-1 lead at the break.
Switzerland91Ƶs skip Marco Hoesli and team took a single point from the sixth end, then in the seventh end.
Canada91Ƶs Tardi hit out two Swiss stones to add another two points to his tally, for a 9-2 lead.
In the eighth end, Switzerland drew their last stone into the house for two points, they then shook hands to concede the game and the title, at 9-4.
91ƵWe had a good game last night and a good de-brief, hopefully to bring the good stuff out today,91Ƶ Tardi said.
91ƵMy teammates were unreal in this game, they made my job easy. It91Ƶs fun to be out there when you only have to throw nose-hits, so a huge thank you to my team for making my job easy.91Ƶ
With this win, Tardi and his team become the first nation to achieve back-to-back junior men91Ƶs titles since 2007, and about that he said, 91ƵIt91Ƶs unbelievable91Ƶ I don91Ƶt know a single word to describe how I91Ƶm feeling. It91Ƶs unbelievable to do it once but to do it twice is just incredible, especially doing it here in Canada.91Ƶ
The team is made up of Tardi (a Cloverdale skip who plays out of the Langley Curling Centre), Middleton (the third who hails from Fort. St. John, lives in New Westminster, and curls out of Langley), Matthew Hall (second, who lives in Cloverdale but also plays out of the Langley rink), and Alex Horvath (the lead who plays out of Victoria). Saskatchewan91Ƶs Rylan Kleiter joined the team for the world competition, as a fifth, and rounding out the team is their coach 91Ƶ Tyler91Ƶs father 91Ƶ Paul, as well as Melissa Soligo retunring as the team leader.
Reflecting on their silver medals, Swiss skip Marco Hoesli said, 91Ƶwe tried our best there. Our goal was to get into the play-offs, which we91Ƶve achieved. We even made it into the final so we91Ƶre really happy with our performance and winning the silver.91Ƶ
Norway opened the bronze medal game with a steal of one point, but the early breakthrough was in Scotland91Ƶs favour when Norway91Ƶs skip Magnus Ramsfjell91Ƶs last stone of the third end was too light, wrecking on a guard and giving Scotland a steal of three points for a 4-1 lead.
The teams then swapped scores of two points to give Scotland a 6-3 lead at the break.
In the seventh end, Scotland skip Ross Whyte played a tap-back for one point to add to his team91Ƶs lead, then Ramsfjell caught another front guard in the eighth end to give Scotland a steal of one point for an 8-4 lead.
Norway drew their last stone of the ninth end to score one more point, then conceded midway through the tenth end, with the final score at 8-5 to Scotland.
With this win, the Scots 91Ƶ skip Whyte, third Duncan McFadzean, second James Craik and lead Euan Kyle, supported by alternate Ryan McCormack and coach Greg Drummond 91Ƶ took bronze medals.
After the game, Scotland skip Whyte said, 91Ƶthat wasn91Ƶt quite the result we wanted this week, but we came back after a struggle last night and we showed what we91Ƶre all about. It was very difficult last night, but we91Ƶre a good team, a good formation.91Ƶ
Still reflecting on his team91Ƶs semi-final loss to Switzerland 91Ƶ their only defeat of the week 91Ƶ he added, 91Ƶyou91Ƶve got to turn up for the play-offs and we didn91Ƶt do that last night, but we91Ƶve had a good week.91Ƶ
Fans are going online congratulating the local players.