Australia claim historic first World Mixed Doubles bronze medal

A historic result came for Australia on Saturday 3 May, when they beat Estonia 9-2 to claim the bronze medal — Australia’s first ever World Mixed Doubles medal.

In the first end, Australia made their mark on the game when Tahli Gill made a nose-hit to open the scoring with three points.

In the fourth end, with Australia now leading by 4-1, Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee tried to score two points with her final draw, but she could only manage to score one, to reduce Australia’s lead to 4-2.

Team Estonia © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

In the fifth end, Australia’s Gill made a nose-hit on the only Estonian stone in the house, to score four more points and extend her team’s lead to 8-2.

In the sixth end, Estonia’s Kaldvee had another draw attempt, but this time she gave up a steal of one point to Australia, making the score 9-2 for the Australians. Estonia then conceded, confirming Australia’s historic win.

Team Australia’s Tahli Gill © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Afterwards, an elated Dean Hewitt said, “We’re proud of what we’ve done. It’s been a fantastic feeling coming through and building throughout the entire year this year, so we can’t be too disappointed with a bronze medal.”

More generally, he added, “We joined up back in 2018 and had a pretty successful year that year. From there we’ve built it year in and year out.”

Meanwhile Tahli Gill said, “We’ve worked really hard, so this is huge for us. It’s also going to give us a lot of confidence moving forward. The momentum isn’t going to stop and we’re going to keep pushing.”

The Australian bronze medal winning team are: female Tahli Gill, male Dean Hewitt, supported by coach Perry Marshall.

The Estonian team are: female Marie Kaldvee, male Harri Lill, supported by coach Steffen Walstad.