Share
Gold-medal sweep!
Canadian teams capture World Senior women’s and men’s championships
OESTERSUND, Sweden — Once again — make that TWICE again — Team Canada is as good as gold in Oestersund.
Replicating the feat pulled off six years at the Oestersund Arena by Team Sherry Anderson and Team Wade White at the 2018 World Seniors, Canadian teams skipped by Susan Froud and Paul Flemming swept the top of the medal podium Saturday at the 2024 World Senior Curling Championships.
Team Flemming (vice-skip Peter Burgess, second. Martin Gavin, lead Kris Granchelli and alternate Kevin Ouellette) of Halifax shaded Team Mike Farbelow of the United States 4-3 in the men’s final, while Team Froud (vice-skip Kerry Lackie, second Kristin Turcotte, lead Julie McMullin, alternate Jo-Ann Rizzo and coach Al Corbeil) earned a 7-3 win over Lithuania’s Team Virginija Paulauskaite in the women’s final.
It marked the second straight year Canadian teams swept the gold after Team Howard Rajala of Ottawa and Team Sherry Anderson of Saskatoon prevailed in 2023 at Gangneung, South Korea, and it was the ninth time in the 21-year history of the World Seniors that Canadian teams won both gold medals.
The men’s final was a thriller that came down to the last shot of the game. After blanking the sixth and seventh ends, Flemming needed to make a runback takeout to remove a buried Team U.S.A. shot. It capped a tense end that had Canada in chase mode for most of it, Burgess was able to clear some U.S. guards.
If it wasn’t the biggest shot of Flemming’s curling career, it was certainly in the conversation.
“It was right up there,” he said with a smile. “Peter kind of tidied it up there for me. I was just really feeling it on my last shot. I was just really seeing it, and we have really good sweepers, so I wanted to use them. They brought it back enough to make it.”
The win set off a wonderful Team Canada celebration, and brought years of attempting to win the big one — at the local, regional, national and international level — to a thrilling conclusion.
“We all have had jobs — I had opportunities to play higher competitive levels early on, but you know life is life,” said Burgess, who joins brother Craig (1988 World Junior Men’s) and nieces Karlee (2016, 2018, 2020 World Junior Women’s) and Lindsey (2018 World Junior Women’s) as a world curling champion. “This is a really cool opportunity to compete at this level, and to put the Maple Leaf on your back, and to win something like this for Canada is amazing.”
“I get to share it with these guys — they were incredible, especially these last few games,” added Flemming. “It was well-earned, and quite honestly I feel like it was well-deserved. We worked really hard.”
Team Froud, meanwhile, were in control the entire way against a Lithuanian team it defeated earlier in the event.
After Lithuania was held to a single with last rock in the first, Canada would take the lead for good with Froud making a precision draw for two in the second end, and then stealing two more in the third when Paulauskaite wrecked on her raise attempt in the third end.
Lithuania conceded defeat in the seventh end after Canada scored a single.
“You know, winning Ontario is tough. Winning Canada is tough. It’s so amazing to have done it,” said Froud. “You think about all that effort over the years. I mean, you give it 110 per cent. And we got 110 per cent today. And to share it with my friends — it’s been amazing.”
Even more amazing that she got to share it with her husband; she and Coach Corbeil are approaching 25 years of marriage.
“It was great,” said Corbeil. “We’ve worked for 25 years together — we make a good team. It’s awesome to watch your wife win. We worked hard for many, many, decades. To get out of Canada is a once in a lifetime for most, so to come here and do it? That’s awesome.”
“It’s hard to put into words — just so, so great that he could share the journey with me,” added Froud. “We just had an amazing week.”
It was the 15th World Senior Women’s and 14th World Senior Men’s gold medal for Canada.
In the bronze-medal games, Scotland’s Team Karen Kennedy doubled Switzerland’s Team Daniela Ruetschi-Schlegel 6-3 in the women’s game, while Mats Wrana’s Swedish team scored three in the eighth end for an 11-9 win over Germany’s Team Andy Kapp in the men’s game.
The French version of this story will be posted as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/?lang=fr