ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – Team Canada didn’t let Sweden’s undefeated record intimidate them as they claimed the World Junior Women’s Curling championship with a 7-4 victory Saturday morning in Aberdeen, Scotland.
The Canadians were steady throughout, despite facing the defending world champion who had brought a 10-0 record into the gold medal game. In fact, when Canada put three points up in the fifth end to take a 5-2 lead, it marked the first time Sweden had trailed by more than a point all week, in the 10-team event.
The Kaitlyn Jones-skipped team, which includes lead Lindsey Burgess of Truro, second Karlee Burgess of Hilden and third Kristin Clarke, edged China 9-7 in the semifinals Friday. China claimed the bronze medal with an 11-5 win over Norway.
Canada’s alternate is Lauren Lenentine and their coach is Andrew Atherton.
Canadian miscues were few and inconsequential in the matchup and Jones was thrilled with the team’s performance.
"This is indescribable and I feel amazing right now,” she said following the win. “I know I put everything out there on the line today and came out on top and that’s just an incredible feeling.”
The turning point of the game came down to Jones’s final shot of the fifth end. She hit a perfect double to sit three and put Canada ahead 5-2.
From there, the confident Canadians wore their opponents down and stole one in the eighth to lead 7-3. Holding Sweden to a point in the ninth left the Canadians coming home with a three-point lead and the hammer in the 10th and they methodically ran Sweden out of rocks. Karlee made a key shot in the ninth with her first rock when she took out a guard and one in the house for a double.
“I’m super proud of my team,” Jones said. “We’ve worked so hard to get here and for me moving all the way across Canada to play with them, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.”
Jones added their intention was to keep Sweden from gaining too much momentum.
“It’s a goal to force them to one and we got the end-goal that we wanted. Whenever they had the hammer we wanted to keep them close to one."
