Lotts fall to Estonia in mixed-doubles shocker

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All it takes is one bad game to spoil a great week of curling.

Gimli’s Colton and Kadriana Lott were feeling that way Friday in Östersund, Sweden after being eliminated from the world mixed doubles curling championship.

Team Canada suffered a 6-5 extra-end loss to Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill in the playoff qualification round.

The Lotts went 8-1 in round-robin play but had to settle for second place in their group as their lone loss came against Sweden’s Isabella Wrana and Rasmus Wrana (who also finished at 8-1). As the top seed, Sweden earned a bye to the semifinal.

That set up Canada’s battle with underdog Team Estonia, which went 6-3 in the round robin but pulled off a shocker.

“There’s not much of anything that I would take back. We played well, all the way through the week we were at the top at both male and female positions,” Colton, 28, told the Free Press in a phone interview.

“This is a fickle game sometimes. It’s just another one of those learning curves and it’s just about what we do with this experience moving forward here to better ourselves as a team.”

Estonia went on to upset Norway in the semifinals late Friday, and will face Sweden on Saturday for the world title.

The world mixed doubles championship originated in 2008 — Canada is still searching for a gold medal.

The husband-and-wife duo, who play out of the Winnipeg Beach Club, had last-rock advantage in the extra end, but Kadriana was light on a draw that needed to cover the button for the win.

“It’s always tough to lose. It’s not the spot you want to be at when it’s the end of the week, but we’re feeling good on how we played all week,” said Kadriana, 24.

“It’s the first experience for us at a world championship and I don’t think we can be too disappointed with how we played. We just got caught in the final game and didn’t come out as sharp as we did throughout the week.”

The Lotts had previously lost two Canadian finals before getting the job done last month in Fredericton, N.B., by taking down world No. 1 Laura Walker/Kirk Muyres.

Fifth place wasn’t the goal for their trip overseas, but the Lotts likely did enough to qualify their country for inclusion in the 10-team field for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. The combined results of the 2024 and 2025 world mixed doubles championships will determine seven of the teams that will compete alongside host Italy. The remaining two countries will come out of the Olympic Qualification Event in Dec. 2025.

The Canadian mixed doubles trials start at the end of this year (Dec. 30-Jan. 4) in Liverpool, N.S., and the Lotts will undoubtedly be among the favourites.

Their most recent taste of international competition was another eye-opener.

“The calibre of play out here is insane. You’ve got to be at the top of your game pretty much every game because teams are making shots left, right and centre,” said Kadriana.

“I think it just shows how strong of a team we are, and I know we’re gonna come back stronger than ever. It’s just gonna help us build as a team moving forward.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

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