Canada's Brad Gushue releases the rock during a match against Sweden at the men's curling world championship at the IWC Arena in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Thursday, April 4, 2024. Gushue enjoyed quite the bounceback effort on Friday as Canada thumped Japan's Shinya Abe 9-3 in six ends at the world men's curling championship. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Ennio Leanza/Keystone via AP
SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland – Brad Gushue enjoyed quite the bounceback effort on Friday as Canada thumped Japan’s Shinya Abe 9-3 in six ends at the world men’s curling championship.
Gushue and his St. John’s, N.L., team of Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker improved to 9-2 with their last round-robin game against Switzerland (6-4) set for later Friday.
After Japan (3-9) evened the score at 1-1 after two ends, Gushue’s side flipped the game on its head by scoring three in the third and four in the fourth end.
The Canadians followed up with a single in the fifth before Japan converted on a deuce in the sixth before conceding the game with four ends remaining.
Gushue was coming off a 6-5 loss to unbeaten Niklas Edin of Sweden in the second of his two games on Thursday, ending a five-game winning streak.
The top six teams qualify for the playoffs, with the top two seeds advancing directly to the semifinal. The medal games will be held on Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2024.
