Canada Wins the 2011 World Wheelchair Curling Championships

Canada won the 2011 World Wheelchair Curling Championships on Tuesday, beating Scotland 7-3 in the final and crowning an unbeaten championship run.

“We got off to a good start, stealing two,” said Canadian Skip Jim Armstrong after the game, “we were very solid and the two girls [lead Sonja Gaudet and second Ina Forrest] at the front end absolutely set the bar for wheelchair curling. They made it really easy for me, I honestly never had a tough shot. In the round robin we were very close after five ends against Scotland, but sometimes you have to play a little more aggressively and we had hard to play to beat them.”

It is a second world championship title for Armstrong, third Darryl Neighbour, second Ina Forrest and lead Sonja Gaudet and comes after their Paralympic gold in Vancouver last year.

“We knew we could come out here and give it our best shot,” said Scottish Skip Aileen Neilson, “Canada played really well and we are absolutely delighted with silver. It’s beyond our wildest dreams.”

Neilson led her Scottish side, third Tom Killin, second Gregor Ewan and lead Angie Malone to a convincing 12-1 win in the semi-final in the morning against Norway.

“This is the first major championship that the five of us have played together,” added Neilson. “I think it’s obvious that we’ve really gelled well together. The guys have played great and given me great support on the ice and made my job easy.”

The Norwegian’s, skipped by Rune Lorentsen, recovered from their semi-final defeat to beat Russia in the bronze medal game 8-3.

“I’m very satisfied,” said Lorentsen afterwards, “we had a good start to the championship and went downhill in the middle. In the game against Scotland this morning I missed everything. It was a bad day at the office for me! But now I’m feeling much better.”

Russia finishes fourth overall and secures a place at the 2012 World Wheelchair Curling Championship next March in Chuncheon City, South Korea along with the medallists and China, Korea, the USA and Sweden

Germany and the Czech Republic face having to qualify for the two remaining world championship spots at the World Wheelchair Curling Qualification event in October in Finland.

Final Standings

Canada 11-0 Gold (qualified for WWhCC 2012)

Scotland 8-4 Silver (qualified for WWhCC 2012)

Norway 7-5 Bronze (qualified for WWhCC 2012)

Russia 6-5 (qualified for WWhCC 2012)

China 5-4 (qualified for WWhCC 2012)

Korea 4-5 (qualified for WWhCC 2012/host)

USA 3-6 (qualified for WWhCC 2012)

Sweden 4-7 (qualified for WWhCC 2012)

Germany 2-8 (relegated to Wheelchair Championship Qualifying event)

Czech Republic 2-8 (relegated to Wheelchair Championship Qualifying event)

Results Final – Gold Medal Game: Canada-Scotland 7-3

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*last stone advantage

Results Bronze Medal Game: Norway-Russia 8-3

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*last stone advantage

Results Semi-Final: Scotland-Norway 12-1.

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*last stone advantage