Canada ripped up the form book in the men and women’s junior finals of the world junior curling championships at Curl Aberdeen on Saturday.
In the men’s final Tyler Tardi led his team to gold with a 6-5 win against a Scotland team which had won every game en route to the final.
The men’s win came just hours after the women’s team stunned defending champions and previously unbeaten Sweden 7-4 to strike gold in their final.
Canada’s men edged ahead in a tense final with a score of three points in the sixth end followed by a steal of one point in the seventh which gave them a 5-2 lead.
The Scots fought back to level at 5-5 but Tardi’s draw with the final stone was enough to give Canada victory.
Canadian skip Tardi said: “It’s an unbelievable feeling. I don’t even know how long I’ve been dreaming about this moment and to have it finally come true is just unbelievable. I can’t believe I’m standing here right now. They’re all great shooters on the other team, hats off to them (Scotland). They made a really good comeback – good on them.
“They made some good shots and made us really work for it. They’ve been working so hard all season.
“There’s no four better guys that could do it with and I’m just over the moon right now.”
Defeat was tough on dejected Scotland skip Ross Whyte, who had led his side brilliantly all week but he was gracious in defeat.
He said: “We just weren’t as sharp as we’d been all week. Unfortunately, we didn’t turn out and shoot the lights out. The Canada boys really played well.
“They put us under a lot of pressure and we really struggled to make twos. But, we’re really proud of what we’ve done this week.
“The boys played really well throughout the whole week and really made my job easy. I’m really glad that they’ve done that and that we came out here and proved ourselves as a team.
“It happens and we’re just pleased that we’ve got that silver medal.”
In the bronze medal play-off, Swtizerland beat the United States 7-4.
The win for Tardi’s team made it a double gold day for Canada came after a 7-4 victory for Kaitlyn Jones’ side against Sweden in the morning final.
She said: “This is indescribable and I feel amazing right now. I know I put everything out there on the line today and came out on top and that’s just an incredible feeling. I’m super proud of my team.
“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.
“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.”
In the women’s bronze medal game, China beat Norway by 11-5 to claim the first medals for China at junior level.
