Share
End of the line
Team Canada eliminated after falling to Team Netherlands in Round of 16 at 2024 World Mixed Curling Championship
Team Canada’s medal aspirations at the 2024 World Mixed Curling Championship came to a disappointing end Friday, as a 6-4 extra-end loss to Team Netherlands’ Simon Spits in the Round of 16 eliminated the Canadians from contention at Curl Aberdeen, Scotland.
The untimely loss comes after Team Canada, composed of skip Shaun Meachem, vice-skip Kelly Schafer, second Chris Haichert, lead Teejay Haichert and coach Pat Simmons of Swift Current, Sask., posted a perfect 7-0 record in round robin play.
In fact, it’s Team Canada’s first loss dating back to November 5th, 2023, where the then Team Saskatchewan fell to Team Nova Scotia’s Paul Flemming at the 2023 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship, marking an impressive 18-1 run through national and international mixed play.
While the playoff loss may be a bitter pill to swallow, second Chris Haichert gives full credit to the Dutch squadron.
“Congratulations to a great Netherlands team who gave us our toughest game of the week, for sure,” said Haichert. “(Spits) played very well and certainly made us have to bring our best.”
The game was a veritable chess match, seeing both teams trade singles for eight ends to be deadlocked at 4-4. Team Canada would carry the hammer into the extra end but surrendered a steal of two to seal the 6-4 final.
“It was certainly less than inches on several shots that could have completely changed the landscape of the game,” said Haichert. “It’s not how we anticipated this week ending, but certainly makes us want to continue to improve and strive to become better.”
Regardless of the outcome, Team Canada is proud of its performance.
“We’ll hold our heads high as we played our hearts out for Canada and, sometimes, that’s just how the sport goes,” said Haichert. “We can’t thank all the fans enough for all the support we’ve received.”
The loss marks the first time since 2016 that Team Canada has missed the podium at the World Mixed Curling Championship, barring the COVID-19 cancelled events in 2020 and 2021.
Canada will remain the global leader in World Mixed medals with five; three gold (2022, 2019, 2018), one silver (2017) and one bronze (2023). Scotland and Sweden are tied for second overall, trailing Canada with three total medals each.
Event information, rosters, and draw can be found at https://worldcurling.org/events/worldmixed/.
All sheets and draws of the World Mixed Curling Championship will be available to stream live on The Curling Channel.