Italy’s Joel Retornaz drew the four-foot ring in an extra end for a 7-6 victory over Canada’s Brad Gushue on Monday at the world men’s curling championship in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
It was the first round-robin loss for the veteran skip from St. John’s, N.L., and his team of Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker.
Canada shot 90 per cent on the day and forced the extra end with a deuce in the 10th. Italy shot 87 per cent overall.
‘What a shot!’ 🙌 Excellent work from Joel Retornaz 🇮🇹 who comes off the top red and pushes the other one out to lie two.<br><br>Watch live on the Curling Channel: <a href=” href=” <a href=” <a href=”https://t.co/bj3wJzszD2″>pic.twitter.com/bj3wJzszD2</a>
—@worldcurling
“I’m disappointed,” said Gushue to Curling Canada. “For me personally, I missed a couple of shots early that caused that swing of the two [points given up] and the one [point scored]. In the third, we had a mini-opportunity to get the deuce back, and it came up light.
“I was struggling with my rocks in the first half, so I switched them out and took Geoff’s and once I got his it was a much different feel. One of my rocks was curling more than the other; it was fooling me and not allowing me to trust where I was putting the broom.”
Both teams were in a four-way tie at 3-1 behind Sweden’s Niklas Edin (5-0) and defending champion Bruce Mouat of Scotland (4-1).
Next up for Canada will be games against New Zealand and the United States on Tuesday.
Round-robin play continues through Friday night and medal games are scheduled for Sunday.
Source Agencies
