Canada’s Jacobs beats Norway and Czechia at world men’s curling playdowns

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/04/2025 (546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOOSE JAW, Sask. – Only one team is consistently throwing in the 90s at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship. 

When it’s your skipper who’s leading the way, the victories will follow. 

Canada’s Brad Jacobs has posted the best numbers at the fourth position and he was in form again Wednesday. Jacobs guided his team to an 8-3 win over Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell in the early draw and an 8-3 victory over Czechia’s Lukas Klima in the evening.

“We’ve got the best player in the world on our team and he’s throwing the seven and eight rocks,” said Canada lead Ben Hebert. “So that’s always a comforting feeling when your skip is dialed and in the zone the way he is.”

Jacobs threw a solid 86 per cent in the morning session, making a draw for three in the fourth end and forcing Ramsfjell to make pressure shots late in the game. Norway gave up a steal of two in the eighth to end it. 

Canada (7-1) opened with a deuce against the Czechs and pulled away after stealing a pair in the sixth end.

The host side is shooting 91.3 per cent over the first five days, tops in the 13-team round robin.

“Every time you go into the worlds after you win the Brier, you’re feeling really juiced up and jazzed that you can come here and win,” Hebert said. “We’re 7-1 at the worlds and we’ve played some really good teams. 

“Our confidence is there for a reason. It’s because we’ve been putting a lot of work in, we’re playing well and we’ve been winning.” 

At 93 per cent, Jacobs has a healthy lead in the percentage race among fourths. Scotland’s Bruce Mouat, who dropped an 11-7 decision to Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller, was next at 87.5 per cent. 

Hebert, second Brett Gallant and vice Marc Kennedy have helped set the table for Jacobs, who’s wearing the Maple Leaf at this event for the first time since taking silver in 2013. 

“We’re giving him a lot of chances and setting up a lot of good ends too,” Hebert said. “We’re playing well and we’re all comfortable with the ice.” 

The rocks were textured after the late session Tuesday, giving the stones a couple feet of extra curl and forcing players to adjust their speed accordingly. 

Ramsfjell struggled with hits — shooting just 43 per cent on takeouts — and was a game-low 66 per cent overall. Jacobs gave credit to alternate Tyler Tardi for a “really great” scouting report on the Norwegians.

“We did try to force them to their weaknesses,” Jacobs said. “And when we did that, we got misses.”

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China’s Xiaoming Xu dropped a 10-3 decision to Czechia in the afternoon to fall into a second-place tie with Scotland. Switzerland joined them at 6-2 after Schwaller topped Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz 7-3.

Sweden’s Niklas Edin, who split his games Wednesday, was 5-3 and Czechia was 5-4. 

Round-robin play will continue through Friday night. The top six teams will qualify for the weekend playoffs. 

Canada’s last title at this competition came in 2017 when Brad Gushue skipped the host team to victory in Edmonton.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2025.