World Men’s Curling Championship: Scotland lose to Italy in bronze-medal match

Scotland concluded the World Curling Championship in wretched fashion by losing to Italy in the bronze-medal match.

The defending champions suffered a “frustrating” semi-final defeat against Canada on Saturday, and leave Switzerland without even the consolation of a podium place.

Bruce Mouat’s rink were 6-3 up going into the 10th end, but missed a draw shot to win, allowing Italy to force an extra end.

And, despite having the hammer, Scotland failed to take advantage and fell to a 7-6 defeat.

“We’re used to coming to Championships and playing well in the playoff stages,” said Mouat. “I feel like we did play well, but there were just a few misses from myself.

“We’re finding this pretty tough. We’re proud to have got to another semi-final of a Championship, but this one’s going to sting for a while.

“Hopefully we can use this to drive ourselves forward for the next couple of years and get back to the Olympics.”

Sweden took gold, beating Scotland’s conquerors Canada 6-5 in the gold-medal match.

Scotland’s Olympic silver medallists Bruce Mouat, Hammy McMillan, Grant Hardie and Bobby Lammie already have a full set of world medals, with last year’s gold coming after a second-place finish in 2021 and bronze on their debut in 2018.