Welcome to Victoria, the City of Gardens — or for the last three weeks, it could also be known as the Garden of Edin.
Niklas Edin certainly could consider adopting the B.C. capital as his second home. The Swedish skip will have fond memories of his stay as exactly two weeks after the 27-year-old claimed the Victoria Curling Classic, Edin added the 2013 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship to his resumé, defeating Canada’s Brad Jacobs 8-6 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Sunday evening.
Edin became the youngest skip to ever win a world title and it was Sweden’s first world men’s championship crown since 2004 when Peja Lindholm, now the national team coach, defeated Sebastian Stock of Germany.
Edin’s team of third Sebastian Kraupp, second Fredrik Lindberg and lead Viktor Kjall also becomes the first European rink to claim both the Euro and world championship in the same season.
Now, if he can only find a way to move the Olympics from Sochi, Russia, to Victoria.
“I would pay off anybody if I could do that. Probably tough to do,” Edin said with a chuckle immediately following his win. “We love it here, though, and we’ll definitely be back for more events.
“It’s been a great couple of weeks and then winning this here, that’s just a super finish to our time here.”
Sweden recorded deuces in the first, third and eighth ends as Edin controlled the entire game, after a sluggish start to the first end.
Jacobs and his rink of third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden chased the game all night after Edin dodged a bullet in the opening end. It was shaping up as a force of one until Fry’s guard over-curled and Jacobs was heavy on a freeze, opening the door. Edin kicked it down.
“Getting that deuce was a good thing for us and a bad thing for them,” said Edin. “They were lying three with a centre guard. It was a huge momentum swing in the first end.”
Jacobs tried to claw back but a steal in the sixth end threw another major wrench into the game.
“They got off to a quick start with a deuce and that’s not how you want to start the championship final,” said Jacobs. “You want to force them [to one], we weren’t able to do that. The end was looking so good and then it ended so bad, it was frustrating to swallow. We tried to battle back, but it wasn’t meant to be.
“Despite the loss, I do feel OK, because it’s something to be proud of still,” added Jacobs, who curled just 75 per cent in the final. “It was a game where nothing seems to go your way. That happens sometimes in curling.”
The week started out so well for Canada, winning its first five games before dropping four of its final six. The Northern Ontario crew did sweep through the Page 3-4 game and semifinal on Saturday and were rolling.
But so, too, was Edin.
“It’s been a wonderful week — the final we played here, it was almost perfect,” said an elated Edin. “We executed our game-plan perfectly.”
The Jacobs crew fell short of pulling off three straight wins in the Page Playoff system, as they did to win the Brier in Edmonton last month to qualify for worlds. Sunday’s loss also ends a run of three straight world men’s titles for Canada.
“You know what? We’re going to hold our heads high. We fought as hard as we could. Congratulations to Sweden — they played awesome,” said Jacobs.
Edin — who defeated Mike McEwen in the final of the Victoria Curling Classic two weeks previous at Archie Browning Sports Centre — was also recognized as the Colin Campbell memorial award winner, voted upon by the curlers for playing ability and sportsmanship.
His team finished fourth at the 2010 Olympics and has made a charge the last few years.
“We played in the last Olympics and our main goal was to get to the next Olympics and maybe grab a medal there,” said Edin. “After the [2010] Olympics, we set up a goal to win the Europeans and worlds. Three years later, we’ve won both and it feels amazing.
“It actually started a couple of months ago,” Edin added. “We played great in Grande Prairie [a World Curling Tour stop], then winning the Victoria Classic was a big thing for us, the biggest paycheque by far for our team.”
As for Jacobs, the Sault Ste. Marie rink will now prepare for the Players’ Championship in Toronto.
“It’s definitely not the end of the world, we’ve accomplished some great things for a young team, and we still have one big event to play in,” Fry said of the Players’ Championship, in which the team hopes to garner more Canadian Team Ranking System points to qualify for Olympic Trials in December in Winnipeg.
