Updated
Canada’s Brad Gushue clinched a spot in the playoffs at the world men’s curling championship on Thursday, picking up a 7-4 win over Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell at IWC Arena in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
Newfoundland-based rink improves to 8-1 at Switzerland tournamentCBC Sports
· Posted: Apr 04, 2024 8:21 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago
Canada’s skip Brad Gushue won 7-4 over Norway at the men’s Curling World Championships in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, on Thursday. (Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP via The Canadian Press/File)Canada’s Brad Gushue clinched a spot in the playoffs at the world men’s curling championship on Thursday, picking up a 7-4 win over Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell at IWC Arena in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
The victory improved the Canadians’ record to 8-1, with their next match coming at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday against the undefeated rink of Sweden’s Nicklas Edin.
Edin (9-0) also punched his ticket to the playoffs with a 6-4 win on Thursday over the United States’ John Shuster.
For Gushue, making the playoffs at worlds also means he and his team secured the first men’s berth available for the Canadian Olympic curling trials in Halifax in November of 2025.
The first spot was available to this year’s Brier winner, pending a top-six finish at the world championships.
Gushue’s squad had a 93 per cent shooting-accuracy game against Norway (4-6), one of the better efforts of the week, but the skip believes there’s still a higher gear to achieve.
“It was better than last night but not as sharp as we can be,” Gushue said. “We still had a couple of sloppy misses and sloppy shots that against a team like Niklas tonight or another top team, we may not get away with it.”
WATCH | Canada clinches playoff berth with win vs. Norway:
Canada defeats Norway on their way to the playoffs in the men’s curling worldsBrad Gushue leads Team Canada to their 8th victory of the men’s curling world championship in a 7-4 triumph over Norway. Their 8-1 record qualifies them into the playoffs.
The world championship round-robin wraps up Friday night. The third through sixth-ranked teams compete in playoff qualification games, with the winners advancing to the semifinals.
The semifinal winners play in the gold-medal game on Sunday, and the losers play for the bronze.
“We want to get into those semifinals,” Canada’s Mark Nichols said. “You want to avoid that qualification game. We had to go through it last year, and it’s a ton of pressure because you know if you’re in it, you’re going to be playing a really tough team. It would be nice to move ourselves one step forward, so we still have work to do.”
Gushue won world gold in 2017 at Edmonton but has settled for silver on three occasions since, including last year in Ottawa.
