Sweden's Edin brings up hat-trick of European titles
BySportsbeat
Updated 29/11/2014 at 22:20 GMT
Niklas Edin admitted his third European Curling Championships success was the best yet after leading Sweden to victory over Norway in the gold medal match.
SOCHI, RUSSIA - FEBRUARY 14: Athlete Edin Niklas of Sweden competes in the men's round robin session against China during day seven of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at Ice Cube Curling Center on February 14, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Pascal Le Seg
Image credit: Getty Images
Sweden started the game with last stone and blanked the first three ends as they looked for an early advantage.
Eventually they pushed themselves in front in the fourth end when they opened the scoring with a draw-shot by Edin for two points.
It was then Norway's turn to blank, in the fifth end, but a hit and stay by their skip Thomas Ulsrud opened their account in the sixth end, scoring one point to half the Swedish lead.
Sweden scored one point in the seventh end for a 3-1 lead but Norway scored two points in the eighth end with another hit and stay to level the game at 3-3.
In the ninth end, Edin drew his last stone onto the button to score one point and re-take the lead, at 4-3.
In the tenth end, Ulsrud was forced to take one point with a tap-out on a Swedish stone, level the game at 4-4 and put the game into an extra end.
Sweden had the all-important last stone in this extra end and Edin eventually used it to deliver a nose-hit to score the one point needed to give his team a 5-4 win and the European Championship title.
The result marked the first time in 14 years that a men's team has gone through the entire European Championship undefeated, which meant the outcome was all the more special for Edin following successes in 2009 and 2012.
"It's amazing. We've had a perfect week here - nine wins in the round-robin," he said. "We knew the Norwegians would give us a hard fight all the way - they always do, so we tried to never relax. We knew it was going to come down to the last rock.
"When we got the two in the fourth end, that was a big break. But then they got back on us. We tried not to play it risky and keep the hammer for the last end.
"We knew we had it in us but we haven't had the best of seasons until this point and we got it all out this week, so it feels amazing and I'm really proud of my team.
"I thought a third European Championship would be like the others, but it feels better than them. I rank it with the Worlds we won in 2013."
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