Norway and Italy to meet in World junior final rematch

The second session of the day brought the men’s semi-finals in which Italy and Norway secured their place in the gold medal game in a rematch of last year’s final. Scotland and Korea will play for bronze.

Both men’s medal games will take place on Monday, 21 April at 15:00.

Italy v Korea

After a blanked first end, Italy were first to score. Italy skip Stefano Spiller played a takeout to score two.

Italy then stole a point in the third end. After Korea skip Kim Daehyun’s draw was too light, all sweepers worked hard to bring the stone to the button. However, after a quick measure, it was determined that Italy was closer.

Korea’s first point came in the third end when Kim used his first stone to draw for one. Italy were unable to remove this and Korea’s final attempt to takeout another Italian stone was unsuccessful, but Korea still claimed the one.

Team Korea © World Curling / Céline Stucki

In the fifth end, Italy’s Spiller played a successful draw to secure the three points, taking a 6-1 lead.

Korea’s second point was earned through a draw to the button by skip Kim in the sixth end.

The seventh end saw Korea attempt a double takeout but only managed a single. Italy used this to their advantage, by playing a draw to add another two points to their board and extending their lead to 8-2.

The eighth end became the last when Korea conceded after their attempt to draw was too light and Italy stole a single point, finalising their 9-2 score and ticket to the final.

Following their 9-2 victory, Italy’s third player Stefano Gilli said, “Representing Italy is always an honour for me, especially in the finals. The crowd supporting us is amazing, and we are so thankful for their support.”

Team Italy © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Norway v Scotland

Scotland got the scoring underway when they stole a single point in the first end after a failed raise takeout attempt by the Norwegians.

In the second end, Norway fought back to score two. With his last stone, Scotland skip Orrin Carson attempted to play a hit-and-roll, but it was too heavy and his stone travelled too much after the hit. This allowed Norway to draw to score two.

Team Scotland © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Scotland responded in the next end by scoring their own two with a takeout, bringing them back into the lead.

The score was levelled 3-3 in the fourth end when Norway played a hit for a single.

Another point was added by Scotland in the fifth end, when skip Carson played a draw for one.

Norway regained their lead in the sixth end, after skip Lukas Hoestmaelingen played a hit through a tight port to score two.

In the seventh end, Norway stole one point when Scotland skip Carson’s draw attempt was too heavy.

Team Norway © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Scotland attempted to draw in the eighth end but it was unsuccessful. However, both teams had a single stone near the button and after deliberation, Scotland’s was deemed closer, bringing the score to 6-5.

The ninth end saw Norway skip Hoestmaelingen try a draw for two, but it was slightly heavy, and they scored just one to go into the tenth end with a 7-5 lead.

In the final end, Scotland had hammer and would need two points to at least force an extra end. However when an attempt to play a raise ran wide, Scotland only scored one point and Norway were 7-6 victors with a ticket to the gold medal game.

Norway will look to defend their title in a rematch of last year’s final against silver medallists, Italy.

After their win, Norway’s Lukas Hoestmaelingen said, “Italy is ranked number one, and we lost to them in the round robin, so they are definitely a tough opponent. We played against them in the final last year, and now we are ready for our revenge. I expect it to be a great game.”