Medal “Dedicated To All Defenders of Ukraine”

Ukraine continued their inspiring run to the men’s final of the European C-Division Championship before finally falling to Ireland.

Ukraine, skipped by Eduard Nikolov, defeated hosts Lithuania in Thursday’s semifinal, overcoming deficits of 4-1 and 6-3 to score a huge three-count in the seventh. They forced Lithuanian skip Konstantin Rykov to a single in the eighth end, and scored a decisive three in the extra-end for the 10-7 victory.

The squad, accompanied by the women’s team skipped by Anastasiia Kotova, had escaped the war in their home country and received aid from numerous curling stakeholders in making their appearance at the championship in Kaunas, Lithuania.

In the men’s final, Ukraine met Ireland, who finished the men’s round robin at 7-0 and defeated Portugal 8-2 in their semifinal.

Most of the championship finale was a taut affair, with the teams swapping singles—except for a blanked fourth end—all the way to the sixth frame. In the seventh, however, Ireland cracked an enormous five-ender, and the game finished 8-2.

Ireland’s John Wilson, Kyle Paradis, James Russell, Craig Whyte and Eoin McCrossan are the champions while Nikolov, Yaroslav Shchur, Mykyta Velychko and Artem Suhak earned a remarkable silver medal.

Portugal’s Steve Seixeiro defeated Rykov’s Lithuania 8-5 for the bronze.

Both Ireland and Ukraine earned promotion to the next European B-Division Championship.

On the women’s side, Belgium’s Caro Van Oosterwyck defeated Spain’s Lydia Valles Rodriguez by a 9-6 count for the gold, while Finland’s Miia Ahrenberg upended Ireland’s Ailsa Anderson 9-7 for the bronze.

Ukraine’s Anastasiia Kotova missed the playoffs with a 2-5 record.

“We congratulate our team with their first ever medal at the WCF competition and promotion to B-group,” said Nataliia Menzhega of the Ukrainian Curling Federation.

“The guys gave it all for the result. It took us two (European C events) to advance to B group and total eight years of curling development in Ukraine.

“We would like to express gratitude to our coach Erkki Lill for being with the team all the time after they left Ukraine to get prepared to the championship, and the World Curling Federation, Sweden Curling Federation, Lauri Ikävalko from Kisskallio and Hardline for making this experience possible.

“We dedicate this medal to all defenders of Ukraine.”

The curling result continues to showcase Ukrainian sport successes since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, which violated the Olympic Truce and led to a flurry of suspensions for Russian sport teams and athletes.

The first major event to see such Ukrainian success was the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. Contested just days after the invasion, Ukrainian Paralympians won a stunning 29 medals—11 of them gold—to finish second behind hosts China.