Switzerland beats Japan to win bronze at world men’s curling championship

Switzerland’s Peter De Cruz defeated Japan’s Yuta Matsumura 8-4 on Sunday afternoon to win the bronze medal at the world men’s curling championship.

De Cruz took the lead with four points in the seventh and stole singles in the next two ends for the victory.

Both teams lost semifinals a day earlier to fall into the third-place game at the Enmax Centre.

Canada’s Kevin Koe was scheduled to play defending champion Niklas Edin of Sweden for the gold medal later Sunday.

READ MORE: Canada’s Kevin Koe beats Scotland and Switzerland to get to gold medal game at worlds

Watch below: (From March 29, 2019) Curling fans are getting ready for the world championships which start on Saturday in Lethbridge. Calgary’s Kevin Koe will be leading Team Canada against the best teams in the world, hoping to add to his trophy case. Kyle Benning has more.

1:26 Team Koe preparing for world curling championships in Lethbridge

The Calgary skip won world titles in 2010 and 2016 with different teams. Koe’s current lineup includes lead Ben Hebert, second Colton Flasch and third B.J. Neufeld.

Sweden led the round-robin standings with an 11-1 record. Canada was the third seed at (9-3) in a six-team playoff pool that also included the United States and Scotland.

Koe’s medal will end a tough stretch of results for Canada’s four-player teams at major events.

He did not reach the podium at the Pyeongchang Olympics last year and the Canadian women’s team skipped by Rachel Homan also did not win a medal.

Canada’s Chelsea Carey missed the playoffs at last month’s world women’s championship in Silkeborg, Denmark.

Edin defeated Canada’s Brad Gushue in last year’s world men’s final in Las Vegas to avenge a loss to the St. John’s, N.L., skip a year earlier in Edmonton.