Mighty Swedes Out of Euro Curling Playoffs

With files from World Curling

The playoff teams have been decided at the 2024 Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships—and in a shocker, Sweden’s Niklas Edin will miss out.

That’s not all ... Italy’s Joel Retornaz has also been eliminated.

Hosted at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland, Edin’s defending Olympic and world champions finished 6-3 in men’s round-robin play, in a wild five-way tie for second place. 

Scotland’s Bruce Mouat finished first at 8-1.

In the end it was a poor head to head record that foiled Sweden, although their DSC—Draw Shot Challenge—wasn’t great either. Team Edin placed seventh (36.65 cm) out of 10 teams in the DSC.

A win in their final round-robin game would have done the job, but Edin—who has won seven European gold medals in addition to four silver—fell to Scotland by a score of 11-7, after falling behind 4-0 after the opening two ends.

Italy’s Joel Retornaz, who has three European bronze medals, would have also qualified if not for a final 7-4 round-robin loss to Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller, who claimed the final playoff berth.

Norway and Germany are in at the expense of Sweden and Italy.

Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell defeated Czech Republic’s Lukas Klima 5-3 to close out the round-robin, and Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz thumped England 10-2. Norway and Germany both finished 6-3 and finished ranked second and third.

The men’s semifinals get underway on Friday morning. Scotland will battle Switzerland while the NOR-GER semifinal battle means one of those nations are headed for the championship final.

Ninth-placed Netherlands and 10th-placed England have been relegated to next season’s men’s B-Division.

On a relatively upset-free women’s side, Scotland’s women’s team—skipped by Rebecca Morrison—joins previously qualified Switzerland, Sweden and Italy in the playoffs.

The Scots needed a win over Norway’s Marianne Roervik to secure their spot in the semifinals and got it, with a 5-4 victory.

Scotland (6-3) now faces Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg (7-2) in one semi while Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni—once again undefeated at 9-0—faces off against Italy’s Stefania Constantini (6-3).

The women’s semifinals are now underway in Lohja.

The ninth-placed Estonia women and Hungary (ranked 10th) women have been relegated to next season’s B-Division.

Lithuania, who had made their debut in this year’s A-Division in Lohja, secured their first-ever world championship spot by finishing eighth.