MONCTON, N.B. April 12, 2009 (CCA)— Scotland’s David Murdoch captured his country’s fifth gold medal in the Ford world men’s curling championship Sunday night at the Moncton Coliseum.
Murdoch’s Lockerbie team — third Ewan MacDonald, second Peter Smith, lead Euan Byers, alternate Graeme Connal and coach David Hay — stole the winning point in the 10th end for a 7-6 victory over Canada’s Kevin Martin.
Martin shocked the audience by throwing his first rock of the 10th end through the rings, then was inside on his last rock, a short runback takeout that left Scotland sitting shot rock for the victory.
It was Murdoch’s second gold medal in four years, and it avenges his loss to Martin in last year’s gold-medal game at Grand Forks, N.D.
“It shows we’re doing something right,” said Murdoch, who turns 31 on Friday. “We’re playing a tough game, we managed to beat an unbeatable Canadian team.
“It’s just unbelievable. At the start of the week, you hope to get in the final and get a good game against Canada, and to come here this week and beat them three times, I think that shows the belief this team has.”
The teams traded deuces in the first two ends, but Canada then forced Scotland to one in the third and took two back in the fourth to take its first lead of the game.
In the eighth end, Canada stole a point to take a two point lead, but Scotland tied it on Murdoch’s draw for a pair after Martin missed on a double takeout.
That set the stage for the 10th-end dramatics, and it finished off Scotland’s third straight win over Canada at the ’09 Ford worlds.
“Unbelievable,” said a happy MacDonald. “To beat these guys three times in three days is unbelievable. But that’s what we train for, that’s what we work for, and we managed to come up with the goods. Absolutely unbelievable.”
China skip Fengchun Wang won the Collie Campbell Award, voted by the curlers as the player who best exhibits ability and sportsmanship.
Attendance at Sunday’s final was 5,296, bringing the nine-day total to 78,470.