Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs clinches first in round robin at 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship
Canada’s ascent to the top of the standings at the 2025 BKT World Men’s Curling Championship is complete after Team Brad Jacobs earned its 10th win of the week.
The latest win, an 8-2 victory in seven ends against Austria’s Team Mathias Genner (1-11), clinches first place in the 13-team field at the Temple Gardens Centre at Moose Jaw, Sask.
Now at 10-1, skip Brad Jacobs, vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert, alternate Tyler Tardi, team coach Paul Webster and national coach Jeff Stoughton have earned a few extra perks. The Canadians have assured themselves a bye to the semifinals on Saturday afternoon, plus last-rock advantage and choice of stones for the remainder of the playoffs.
The win marks Canada’s fifth straight game that has not gone to the 10th end. The last time Team Jacobs was on the ice for a double-digit end was three days prior on Tuesday against the Italians.
“I think it’s also big that we’ve played these last few games in fewer than 10 ends,” said Jacobs. “We’ve saved our bodies quite well, but we just locked up a lot of good stuff. I think we locked up hammer and rocks (confirmed) and all that good stuff, and first place, so we’re really pleased.”
Earlier Friday, Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat (8-3) earned the ‘Q,’ and the results from this afternoon have decided the remaining four teams competing in the playoffs.
Also joining Canada and Scotland in the playoffs are Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller (8-3), China’s Team Xiaoming Xu (7-4), Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell (7-4) and Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin (7-4).
One of those teams will also earn a direct spot in the semifinals on Saturday at 3 p.m. (all times Central Standard), while the third-ranked will play sixth and fourth will play fifth in the qualifying round earlier on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Suffice it to say, Canada will play for a medal this weekend at worlds, but whether it is Sunday’s gold-medal game at 3 p.m., or the bronze-medal game at 9 a.m. remains to be seen.
The team from the Glencoe Club in Calgary started against Austria with hammer and executed an open draw for two in the first. Team Jacobs strung together back-to-back steals of one in the second and third ends, and Austria replied with a single in the fourth.
In the fifth end, alternate Tardi swapped in for Hebert, marking the 26-year-old’s debut at the world men’s championship. Canada attempted to blast out an Austrian stone for a few points and ended up with one.
“I didn’t expect to play this week,” said Tardi, a two-time world junior men’s champion. “That’s not my goal, to be on the ice; it’s to support the guys as best I can. It’s a great bonus, but at the end of the day, I’m just here to make sure the guys can perform as best as they can and be unnoticed but needed; that was my goal.”
Tardi, who plays second for Team Kevin Koe, joined the team as alternate and hasn’t felt like an outsider since first stepping on the ice with the Montana’s Brier champs.
“Outsider is an interesting word because they’ve, since Day 1 when Brett was at the mixed doubles nationals and I had a practice with Ben and Paul, I didn’t feel like an outsider from the second I stepped out on the ice with them and they’re just so welcoming and such a great group of guys. It’s been an absolute blast with these guys,” Tardi said.
Canada kept Austria to a single in the sixth and ended the game in the seventh, with Jacobs making a thin pick to score three.
“I know I struggled a little bit personally early on in that game because we came off of a huge game last night (a win against Switzerland), and that was just exciting, lots of emotion, really intense, and this game felt a little bit just lower energy. So we did the best we could,” Jacobs said. “Luckily, we just got a lead, and we were able to hold on to it, make a good shot for three and handshakes.”
The Canadians outshot Austria 89 per cent to 70 and continuously ramped the pressure up against the European team, making its first appearance at the event since 2002.
While Canada has padlocked first place, it returns to the ice later Friday against Team Korey Dropkin of the United States (4-7). The Friday night game at 7 p.m., the final draw of the round robin, is bound to be memorable. The draw is officially sold-out, with a confirmed attendance of more than 4,300 — largely made up of spirited Canadian fans ready to raise the roof of Temple Gardens Centre.
In other Friday afternoon games, Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz (5-7) defeated the Americans 9-4; Switzerland made a double in the 10th end to defeat Team Lukas Klima of the Czech Republic (6-6) 6-5; and Japan’s Team Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi (5-7) needed an extra end to defeat Italy’s Team Joel Retornaz (5-7) 9-7.
Scotland, China, Norway, Sweden and South Korea’s Team Hyojun Kim (1-10) had byes this afternoon.
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This story will be available in French as soon as possible at ww1.curling.ca/2025worldmen/nouvelles/?lang=fr.