Olympic champs No. 1 heading into Cortina

[With files from World Curling]

Italy defeated Scotland 9-4 to win their first World Mixed Doubles championship medals at Fredericton, N.B.

The pairing of Stefania Constantine and Amos Mosaner had beaten Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill 7-6 in the semifinals, while Scotland’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat were 9-6 winners over Australia.

A historic result then came for Australia when the duo of Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt defeated the Estonians 9-2 to claim the bronze medal—also Australia’s first ever World Mixed Doubles medal.

In the championship final, stolen ends extended Italy’s lead to 5-1 until the sixth end, when the Scots scored three points to trail 5-4.

The seventh end was the clincher, as a lengthy runback from Constantini tallied a big four-ender. With the Italians now ahead by five points, Scotland conceded.

(World Curling video below)

Italy completed their week by winning all eleven games, just as they had done when they won their surprise Beijing 2022 Olympic title.

Despite a three-year gap in their partnership, Constantini and Mosaner must be considered No. 1 in the discipline heading into their hometown Olympic Winter Games.

“We were playing really good in the centre of the sheet,” Mosaner told World Curling. “And Stefania then makes a fantastic runback … amazing.”

“We really enjoy playing together like this,” said Constantini. “We have great teamwork together. We are working for every win, every stone, and we’re communicating well.”

“Obviously, we’re disappointed, but it was a good effort for us to get to the final again,” said Mouat, skip of the men’s world fours champions.

“We’ll debrief in the coming weeks and figure what it was that made us play so well—we’ll try to bring that to next year.”

Dodds and Mouat placed fourth in Beijing behind Sweden. They captured Scotland’s first WMD title back in 2021.

“We’ve worked really hard, so this is huge for us,” Australia’s Gill told World Curling regarding their bronze medal. “It’s also going to give us a lot of confidence moving forward. The momentum isn’t going to stop and we’re going to keep pushing.”

With Italy qualified as hosts, the other direct Olympic qualifiers were confirmed to be Estonia, Sweden, Great Britain/Scotland, Norway, WMD hosts Canada, Switzerland, and the United States.

Two additional places in each discipline at the Olympic Winter Games will be claimed at the Olympic Qualification Event in December at Kelowna, B.C.