24 February 2024
Norway are world junior men’s champions
As the last act of the World Junior Curling Championships 2024, the men played for medals on Saturday afternoon.
Gold medal game
Norway – who had defeated United States by 10-4 in the semi-final – met Italy for the gold medals and the world title. Italy won their semi-final on Friday by 7-5 against Denmark.
Norway finished fourth in the last two editions of the event. Italy came fifth in 2023 and eighth in 2022.
Norway had hammer in the first end, and took a single after a nose hit by skip Lukas Hoestmaelingen.
In the second, Hoestmaelingen was only partially successful with his double take-out attempt, which gave Italy a chance for two. Their fourth, Francesco De Zanna played a perfect draw with his last for two and a 2-1 lead.
In the third, Norway scored two right back after a nose hit by Hoestmaelingen.
In the fourth, Norway were lying two on the one-foot and De Zanna needed to tap out one of them to give up only one. He just did that and Norway stole a single. Norway 4, Italy 2 after four.
As the fifth end was blanked, the teams went into the break with 4-2.
De Zanna needed to nagivate his last stone through a narrow port to score two in the sixth. He did just that for 4-4.
In the seventh, Hoestmaelingen attempted a double take-out for three, but wasn’t perfect with it and Norway only scored a single.
De Zanna made a hit for one in the eighth to tie that game again, 5-5. In the ninth, Hoestmelingen made a hit for one right back to take the lead back, 6-5.
In the tenth, De Zanna made a perfect draw for one to take the game into an extra end.
In the extra end, Hoestmaelingen needed a double take-out for the win and also needed to keep his shooter in the house. The first part was accomplished, but his shooter rolled out, leaving the house empty. In meant that the teams were going into a second extra end.
In the 12th end, De Zanna couldn’t put his last into scoring position and Norway won the game without needing to throw their last. Norway 7, Italy 6 is the final score.
After their win, Hoestmaelingen said, “We just tried to keep the head cool and we just love playing curling so we thought ‘why not another end?’
Sharing his feelings about making history by becoming the first Norwegian men’s team to win this title, he said, “It feels absolutely amazing! Going outwards, I’m just happy to make our country proud. It’s amazing! I’m lost for words. Norway’s getting up there, just start fearing us from now!”
Italy skip Stefano Gilli said after the final, “We are very proud, we played very well, it’s only sad to finish with a loss. But we won silver, we are so happy and we are looking forward to next year!”
Bronze medal game
United States took on Denmark in the bronze medal game. Both teams qualified for this event by finishing in the top four at the World Junior-B Championships in December 2023. There, they met in the semi-final with United States winning by 7-2.
Denmark had hammer in the first end and they picked up two after two perfect shots by fourth player Jonathan Vilandt.
In the second, United States skip Wesley Wendling needed to draw for one. He executed the task at hand for a single.
In the third, it was Vilandt’s turn to draw for a single. He made no mistake. United States 1, Denmark 3 after three ends.
Wendling made a draw for one in the fourth, for 3-2, Denmark leading.
Before the last two stones of the fifth end, United States found themselves in a difficult situation, lying a single stone in the eight-foot, while Denmark lying five, having hammer. Wendling’s draw came up light, and Denmark had a chance to score five. Vilandt took the single American stone out and Denmark put a huge five on the board. They were leading the game by 8-2 at half time.
In the sixth, Vilandt’s freeze attempt wasn’t successful and it gave United States a chance for three. Wendling made no mistake with his last draw and the Americans scored three. They were trailing 5-8 after six.
In the seventh, Vilandt attempted a hit for one, but wrecked on a guard to give up a steal of one. In the eighth, he made a draw for one and for a 9-6 lead for Denmark.
In the ninth, Vilandt had a complete miss on a take-out, and it opened the floor for a score of three for United States. Wendling made the take-out required for it and tied the game at 9-9.
In the last end, Vilandt needed to tap out the American stone from shot position to score one. He did that for 10-9 and the bronze medals.
After the game, Denmark skip Jacob Schmidt said, “We worked hard for this, so it’s just a crazy feeling to finally be here and achieve a big goal of ours. I think the five-ender was important. We tried to keep ourselves in the game, even though it was getting tighter and tighter and we weren’t playing that well, so I think it was good that we kept ourselves in.”
The gold medallist Norwegian team are skip Lukas Hoestmaelingen, third Tinius Haslev Nordbye, second Magnus Lilleboe and lead Eskil Eriksen, supported by alternate Harald Daehlin and coach Johan Hoestmaelingen.
The silver medallist Italian team are skip Stefano Gilli, fourth Francesco De Zanna, second Andrea Gilli and lead Francesco Vigliani, supported by alternate Alberto Cavallero and coach Marco Mariani.
The bronze medallist Danish team are skip Jacob Schmidt, fourth Jonathan Vilandt, second Alexander Qvist and lead Kasper Jurlander Boege, supported by alternate Nikki Jensen and coach Lars Vilandt.
During the closing ceremony, Kaylee Raniseth of Canada and Norway’s Lukas Hoestmaelingen were declared as winners of the World Curling Junior Sportsmanship Awards 2024. For the annual awards all participants are invited to nominate a fellow competitor who, in their view, has best exemplified the traditional values of skill, honesty, fair play, sportsmanship and friendship during the world championships.
Click here for all the results from the competition.
Engage with the World Curling Federation about the World Junior Curling Championships 2024 on TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook, and Weibo and by searching the hashtags #WJCC and #curling
