Canada and Italy Ousted, Sweden and Australia for WMD Curling Gold

Australia and Sweden, the latter featuring the daughter of legendary women’s fours skip Anette Norberg, will battle for world mixed doubles curling gold after scoring thrilling semifinal playoff wins at Geneva, Switzerland. 

Round robin front-runners Australia battled Italy, who started fast with a force, a deuce and two quick steals for a 4-1 lead at the midway point.

Australia’s Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt finally came untracked, scoring a three-ender to tie the match, and followed that up by forcing Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner to a single. Italy led 5-4.

The Aussies then dropped their power play in the seventh, scoring a pair to lead 6-5, and the Italians responded with a blank end to come home one down with hammer.

However, Italy could only manage a single and they were off to play their third consecutive extra end in as many games.

In the extra frame, Australia lay one and followed up Mosaner’s last throw – a guard – with a guard of their own, forcing Constantini to fight for shot stone.

The Italians missed, just skimming the target stone, and the Australians were into the final with the 7-6 victory.

In the other semifinal, Canada and Sweden traded singles through the first half for a 2-2 tie, before Sweden’s Therese Westman and Robin Ahlberg rocked the Canadians with a huge steal of three for a sudden 5-2 lead.

The steal came after Colton Lott blasted a runback on his final throw and moved seven stones, knocking five out completely – three of them his own, with a fourth Canada stone out of the four-foot.

Westman then locked a freeze and Kadriana Lott faced a difficult draw to cut the Swedes down, and missed.  

Canada then used their power play to score a deuce, but still trailed 5-4 with two ends left to play.

The seventh end saw Kadriana Lott throw a high guard on her final stone, and Westman managed a shot to score one for a 6-4 Swedish lead.

Coming home and needing a pair to tie the match, the Canadians conceded just before their final stone.

Westman is the daughter of Swedish curling legend Anette Norberg, winner of two Olympic and world championship titles. Norberg was cheering in the stands after her women’s team was knocked out of the quarterfinals of the world seniors championship, being played concurrently with the mixed doubles.

Sweden and Italy will meet for gold on Saturday evening, while Canada and Australia will play the bronze medal game earlier that morning.

Constantini/Mosaner are the defending champions, and captured Olympic bronze in defence of their 2022 Olympic title on home soil in February.

Westman/Ahlberg are competing in their second world MD championship after finishing fifth in their pool in 2023, also played at Geneva.

Earlier Friday, Italy and Sweden advanced to the semifinal round after morning qualification victories over Japan and Scotland. 

The final medal games, plus repeat viewing of the full championship, are available at The Curling Channel.