1 April 2026
Switzerland top LGT World Men’s Table after Sweden stumble on day five
In a clear example of how fickle life can be at this level, Sweden, who led the rankings of the LGT World Men’s Championship as they came off the ice on Tuesday, suffered two severe losses on Wednesday to lose their unbeaten record and their place at the top of the table, with Switzerland now sitting top.
In their afternoon game, Sweden, sitting on seven wins and no losses, went down 8–5 to second-placed Switzerland, a victory that meant the Swiss shared top spot with them.
But there was even worse to follow for Sweden in their evening game when, after giving up scores of four in both the first and fifth ends, they were beaten 10–3 by Canada in just six ends.
The game between Sweden and Switzerland was a top-of-the-table clash. It was tied at 5–5 when, in the eighth end, Switzerland’s fourth player Philipp Hoesli played a draw to score two more points and take a 7–5 lead. Switzerland went on to win by 8–5 with a single steal, to share top spot with the Swedes.
Afterwards, Swiss skip Marco Hoesli said, “It feels great. We’re just having fun out there and enjoying good curling. That game went back and forth and winning it makes us feel even better.”
Switzerland carved out three steals in this game and about that, Hoesli said, “We just wanted to pressurise him and make him play some difficult shots. He missed one or two and that was good for us.” He added, “I think we’re getting better from game to game and we’re just trying to keep this up.”
Sweden’s evening game against Canada started in the worst possible way for them when skip Niklas Edin came up short with his final draw of the first end, to give up a steal of four.
Later in the fifth, Canada’s skip Matt Dunstone had a straightforward take-out through a front port, to score another four points and take a 10–2 lead. Sweden then scored a consolation single in the sixth and conceded, giving Canada a 10-3 win.
This win, added to their earlier 8-4 defeat of China, keeps Canada in the pack in joint third place and in contention for a weekend play-off slot while Switzerland, who sat out the evening session, move into a clear lead at the top of the table, having played one game less than the Swedes.
After his win, Dunstone said, “They’ve been the best team here and we knew we were going to have to be good. We brought our ‘A’ game there and we got a couple of breaks early. I hope this win tonight brings us all the confidence in the world.”
These results have brought the chasing pack closer to the leaders, including Scotland, who recorded two wins on Wednesday, beating Korea 7–2, then Germany 10–4, to join Canada in third place.
By the sixth end of their game against three-man Korea, the Scots had built a 4–2 lead and when their skip Ross Whyte scored two more points with an open draw in to the house, they improved their lead to 6–2. The Scots went on to win by 7-2.
Later skip Whyte said, “We’re slowly building into the competition. We’re very pleased with how we’re playing. It’s showing in the results, but it’s just one step at a time.”
He also reflected on the endurance required for this twelve-game round-robin saying, “We’re starting to realise how physically intense this competition is. It puts a lot of pressure on the boys’ bodies, but they’re doing a good job of managing that so far.”
In their evening game against Germany, the Scots put on another clinical performance, scoring three in the second end with a take-out by Whyte, and then stealing three in the fifth when German skip Marc Muskatewitz caught a guard with his final draw. After this, the teams swapped twos in the sixth and seventh ends, after which, Germany conceded.
This was a second loss of the day for Germany, who had earlier gone down by 10–4 to Japan.
In the fourth end of this game, Japan held a 4–1 lead, and Germany’s Muskatewitz had a chance to score three and level the game. However, he came up short with his draw attempt, and could only score two points, to reduce the Japan lead to 4–3.
In the fifth end, Japan’s Yanagisawa Riku played a hit on a German stone and rolled his own into position to score four points from the end and improve his team’s lead to 8–3. Japan went on to win by 10–4.
Speaking afterwards, Japan’s skip and third player, Yamaguchi Tsuyoshi said, “We had lost five in a row, so we knew we had to do well today, making shots, focussing, enjoying it… and winning. Tomorrow, we need to focus again and get more wins.”
Italy had two wins on Wednesday, beating Poland 8–4 and then Czechia 6–4, and these results put the Italians into fifth place, on six wins but with one more loss than Canada and Scotland.
After their win over Poland, Italian skip Stefano Spiller said, “We had a plan and we followed it and were in control of the game. We are improving, and we’re playing very well, so we just need to keep going.”
Behind Italy, United States also had two wins on Tuesday, by 8–5 over Czechia and then a 6–5 extra-end win over China.
The game against China went to an extra end with the score tied at 5–5. In that end, a nose-hit by American skip John Shuster gave the United States a single point and the 6–5 win that puts his team into sixth place on the table.
Speaking after this tightest of games, Shuster said, “That’s what we come to the world championships for — games like that where both teams are making the shots.”
And about his winning last shot he added, “We were pretty sure if we hit it on the nose, we’d score to win. That was a massive game, you’ve got to win every game you’ve got a chance to along the way.”
Poland recorded their second win so far, beating Norway by 8–5, helped largely by a score of three in the fourth end.
After this game their skip Konrad Stych said, “We’re feeling great. The team performed great today. The ice was a bit trickier, but we managed it well. It was really important for us to win this one because our main goal is to stay in the ‘A’ Division.”
After losing to the Poles, Norway then lost 9–7 to Korea, to remain without a win at the foot of the table.
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