Canada clinches semifinal spot at World Men’s Curling Championship
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Team Canada is one win away from the gold medal match at the BKT World Men’s Championship in Moose Jaw.
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With an 11-1 round robin record, the Canadians — featuring skip Brad Jacobs, third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert — secured top spot in the 13-team field and earned a bye into the semifinals, which are scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Canada will face the winner of the qualifier matchup between fourth-seed Sweden and fifth-seed Scotland, which is set for 9 a.m. Saturday. Canada’s only round robin loss of the tournament came at the hands of world No. 1 ranked Bruce Mouat and Team Scotland, the 2023 champions, while Sweden’s Niklas Edin is the defending champion from last year who has also won five of the last six world championships.
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Third-seed China will take on on sixth-seed Norway with the winner advancing to the other semifinal against Switzerland, who finished second place in the group with a 9-3 record.
The winners of the semifinals will advance to Sunday’s final set for 3 p.m. inside Moose Jaw’s Temple Gardens Centre while the semifinal losers will battle for bronze at 9 a.m.
As for how they got here, Canada started off the tournament with three straight wins over Japan, Germany and Korea.
Jacobs and company then lost to Scotland on Monday before collecting wins over the defending champion Sweden, Italy, Norway, Czechia, China and Switzerland.
Canada then capped off the round robin with an 8-2 win over Austria on Friday afternoon followed by an 8-3 win over the United States on Friday evening.
top six teams make playoffs, *top two advance to semifinal
- *Canada 11-1
- *Switzerland 9-3
- China 8-4
- Scotland 8-4
- Sweden 8-4
- Norway 7-5
- Czechia 6-6
- Germany 5-7
- Italy 5-7
- Japan 5-7
- United States 4-8
- Korea 1-11
- Austria 1-11
Note: Guaranteed a top four finish at worlds, Canada also secured a spot in in the 2026 Olympics in Italy. The team that wears the maple leaf will be determined at the Canadian Curling Trials in November.
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