Women's world curling championship: Swiss defeat Canada 5-3 to win gold
Switzerland's Alina Patz defeats Canada's Jennifer Jones
Switzerland's Alina Patz defeated Canada's Jennifer Jones 5-3 Sunday to claim the gold medal at the world women's curling championship in Sapporo, Japan.
Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen dug themselves a hole early, unable to put any points on the board until the seventh end and spotting Patz a 4-0 lead. With two in the seventh and one more in the ninth, they closed the gap to 4-3, but Patz had the hammer coming home in the 10th end.
"I wish we could start the game over again, but that's just not the way the game goes," said Jones. "We left it all on the ice, and I couldn't really ask for ourselves to do anything more than that. We did push them, and I'm proud of the girls for that."
It's the sixth straight year a Canadian team has reached the podium at the tournament, a streak that no other country can currently match. But gold has been elusive with Jones being the last Canadian champion in 2008.
The Canadians had their chances in a closely fought tenth end, but the Swiss sealed the win with another single point on their last rock.
Canada defeated Russia's Anna Sidorova 7-4 in Saturday's semifinal to book their spot in the gold-medal match.
Russia went on to hammer Scotland 13-4 to win the bronze medal.
Jones fell 6-4 to the Swiss in the Page playoff 1-2 Saturday and Switzerland also beat Canada 7-6 in the round robin on Wednesday.
Patz claimed Switzerland's third world title in four years. Mirjam Ott won in 2012 at Lethbridge, Alta., and Binia Feltscher did so last year in Saint John, N.B.
Despite Sunday's silver medal effort, Canada still leads all countries with 15 golds and 32 podium appearances at the world championship since 1979. Sweden is next with eight gold and 23 total medals.