Scotland’s Eve Muirhead claimed a record fourth world junior title when she led her team of Anna Sloan, Vicky Adams and Rhiann Macleod to a 10-3 victory over Canada’s Trish Paulsen, Kari Kennedy, Kari Paulsen and Natalie Yanko in Sunday’s women’s final of the World Junior Curling Championships 2011 in Perth, Scotland.

Muirhead’s team attacked from the start, scoring a two in the first end which could have been three if Muirhead’s final stone had not rolled out of the house.

The teams swapped single points in the next two ends and, in the fourth, when she faced four Scottish counters, Paulsen was light with her draw and gave up a steal of three to go 1-6 down.

After this, Canada had a mountain to climb, and the result was put beyond any lingering doubt when Scotland stole a further two points in the seventh when Paulsen’s final draw sailed on past two Scottish counters, for a 10-2 lead to Scotland.

Canada scored one in the eighth end, and then conceded.

After the game, Muirhead  said, “that was a great game for us, we all played well and made no mistakes out there and gave them no chance.  That’s what happens when you do that, you can put the pressure on”.

She added, “we knew we had to come out strong, Canada are a great team.  We knew we had to do that to get the win.  We gave them nothing and that’s the way we wanted to play.  We didn’t miss anything, we placed the stones exactly where we wanted them”.

About her fourth title, she said, “to win it four times feels pretty good, each time feels just as good as every other time, but this is special. I’m finished with juniors now, but I don’t think I could have achieved any more in my junior career than to win the world title four times”.

A tearful Paulsen said, “We just didn’t play our greatest game, Scotland came out and played very well.  I missed a few key shots and it just didn’t go our way.  But I’ve felt proud of every game we won”.

Russia’s Anna Sidorova and her team of Galina Arsenkina, Viktoria Moiseeva and Ekaterina Antonova beat Sweden’s defending champions Sofia Mabergs, Anna Huhta and sisters Jonna and Sara McManus, by 9-3 to claim bronze 

Sidorova said, “this is good but we can still do better, and I hope next year we will show that we can. That was a bit better than the semi-final.  It’s good to win bronze because it’s my first medal, but next year I’ll do better, I hope”.

The World Junior Curling Championships 2012 will take place in Östersund, Sweden from 3-11 March. Scotland, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and the Czech Republic have all qualified for next year’s event. USA, Japan and France face challenges and regional qualification events to make it to Sweden.

Photo: Scotland's Eve Muirhead, courtesy of Tom Brydone. 

Junior Women’s Final Ranking

1. Scotland 9-2 GOLD
2. Canada 8-5 SILVER
3. Russia 8-4 BRONZE
4. Sweden 6-6
5. USA 5-5
6. Switzerland 5-5
7. Norway 4-5
8. Japan 3-6
9. Czech Republic 3-6
10. France 1-8 

 

RESULTS:

Women, Final / Gold: Scotland 10, Canada 3.

Women, Bronze: Russia 9, Sweden 3.