Swiss sweep to bronze over Swedes

VANCOUVER – Markus Eggler can hang a second Olympic bronze medal around his neck.

The Swiss skip, who captured bronze at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City playing second for Andreas Schwaller, earned another bronze Saturday morning at the Vancouver Olympic Centre with a 5-4 triumph over Sweden’s Niklas Edin.

Eggler also throws second stones for this team, but calls the shots; he was backed up by third (and last-rock thrower) Ralph Stoeckli, second Jan Hauser and lead Simon Struebin.

The Swiss found themselves down 4-3 in the ninth end, and had a big end building – that is, until Edin needed just one shot to remove four Swiss stones from the rings, and Stoeckli was forced to blank the end and carry hammer into the 10th.

And there, finally, Edin’s poise got away from him; he was wide and heavy on a freeze attempt to a Swiss stone in the back of the four-foot, giving Stoeckli the draw to the same spot for the victory.

It was a defensive, well-played game throughout; the last-rock throwers were forced to draw for singles in the first two ends while looking at two opponents’ stones, and in the third, Swedish vice-skip Sebastian Kraupp made a massive triple takeout to erase a threat, and keep things clean.

Edin’s freeze in the fourth end forced Switzerland to settle for one, and in the fifth, the Swedes finally took some control. Second Fredrik Lindberg made a terrific hit and roll behind a corner guard that the Swiss couldn’t remove; it led eventually to an open hit to score two for Edin.