24 November 2023
Switzerland men pick up European bronze medals
Italy faced Switzerland in the men’s bronze medal game at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2023 on Friday evening.
It took all the way to an extra end, but Switzerland eventually beat Italy by 8-4 to claim the bronze medals.
The game started with two blank ends. Then, in the third, Italy were forced to take a single point with a draw to the button by their skip, Joel Retornaz.
In the fourth end, Switzerland scored two to take a 2-1 lead when their fourth player Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel played a draw for two.
The fifth end was blanked. Then, in the sixth, an attempted double take-out by Retornaz went wrong and he gave up a steal of one to the Swiss, who took a 3-1 lead.
In the seventh end, Retornaz played a draw to score two and level the game at 3-3.
In the eighth, Switzerland’s Schwarz-van Berkel played a hit to score one and take a 4-3 lead. Italy blanked the ninth end.
In the tenth, Retornaz was lying one in the house and, with just four seconds left on his time-clock, attempted a long promotion which rolled just too far. Italy had to settle for one to tie the game at 4-4 and go into an extra end.
In the extra end, the Swiss had two stones around the button. With their last stone, Italy could not find a way to get into a scoring position, crashing their final effort and giving up a score of four to the Swiss.
Switzerland won the game by 8-4 without having to play their last stone.
Afterwards, a pleased Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller said, “To medal is always special, especially in a field like this. It’s not a gimme. We are super happy that we got it.”
Reflecting on their semi-final loss, he added, “We knew how to deal with our loss this morning, and try to start again.”
The bronze medal winning Swiss team are: skip Yannick Schwaller, fourth player Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel, second Sven Michel and lead Pablo Lachat, supported by alternate Kim Schwaller and coach Haavard Vad Petersson.
On the last day of the championships, Switzerland will take on Italy for the women’s title on Saturday at 9:00. Scotland men will face Sweden for the men’s title on Saturday at 14:00.
B-Division
Competition in the B-Division continued with play-off games.
In the women’s competition, Lithuania and Hungary qualified for the gold medal game and earned a spot in next season’s A-Division. They beat Poland and Latvia, respectively, in the semi-finals.
At the end of the round robin it was decided that ninth placed Belgium and tenth Slovakia got relegated to the C-Division.
In the men’s competition, Austria and England secured a spot in the gold medal game and in next season’s A-Division. They won over Latvia and France, respectively, in the semi-finals.
Portugal and Liechtenstein finished 15th and 16th overall, and they are now relegated to the C-Division.
Engage with the World Curling Federation during the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2023 on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook and by searching the hashtags #curling and #ECC
