Unbeaten Canada win World Men's Curling Championships

Heading into the showpiece Canada – the team consisting of skip Brad Gushue, third and vice-skip Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant, lead Geoff Walker and alternate Tom Sallows – had yet to taste defeat.

And they weren't about to start in the final which proved to be a nervy affair, with four blanked end.

After Canada blanked the first end they nudged ahead in the second only for Swede skip Niklas Edin to draw level in the third.

After the fifth end the scores were 2-2 but the breakthrough came in the ninth when Gushue drew his last stone into the house to score two points and take a 4-2 lead.

And that is how it stayed meaning Curling Canada became the first ever Member Association to record clean sheets and win both the men's and women's World Curling Championships in the same year.

"It's awesome!" said Gushue. "What a game, Niklas [Edin] and his team played so well, it took everything we had to win," he said.

"We were able to control the hammer till the ninth end, when we got a good deuce and a couple of good shots in the last end.

"Whether we won or not, this has been an incredible year but this is the icing, the candle and everything on the cake. What an event, what a week, what a year!"

Earlier in the day Switzerland beat USA 7-5 to claim the bronze medal, the same result they recorded in 2014.

Switzerland skip Peter De Cruz said: "This feels really good. We won the bronze three years ago. That was Olympic year so people were saying 'two of the best teams weren't there' but now we feel that we belong with the best.

"This feels just as good [as last time]. I think the field was pretty tough this year and it was an important tournament with Olympic qualification.

"We're very happy with how we performed, we're already happy with our Olympic qualification, but the medal is a plus."

Sportsbeat 2017