Gushue locks up playoff berth at men’s curling worlds, spot at Olympic trials in 2025

Canada’s Brad Gushue clinched a spot within the playoffs on the world males’s curling championship on Thursday, selecting up a 7-4 win over Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell at IWC Enviornment in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

The victory improved the Canadians’ file to 8-1, with their subsequent match coming at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday in opposition to the undefeated rink of Sweden’s Nicklas Edin.

Edin (9-0) additionally punched his ticket to the playoffs with a 6-4 win on Thursday over the US’ John Shuster.

For Gushue, making the playoffs at worlds additionally means he and his crew secured the primary males’s berth accessible for the Canadian Olympic curling trials in Halifax in November of 2025.

The primary spot was accessible to this yr’s Brier winner, pending a top-six end on the world championships.

Gushue’s squad had a 93 per cent shooting-accuracy recreation in opposition to Norway (4-6), one of many higher efforts of the week, however the skip believes there’s nonetheless the next gear to attain.

“It was higher than final night time however not as sharp as we will be,” Gushue stated. “We nonetheless had a few sloppy misses and sloppy pictures that in opposition to a crew like Niklas tonight or one other prime crew, we might not get away with it.”

WATCH | Canada clinches playoff berth with win vs. Norway:

The world championship round-robin wraps up Friday night time. The third by way of sixth-ranked groups compete in playoff qualification video games, with the winners advancing to the semifinals.

The semifinal winners play within the gold-medal recreation on Sunday, and the losers play for the bronze. 

“We wish to get into these semifinals,” Canada’s Mark Nichols stated. “You wish to keep away from that qualification recreation. We needed to undergo it final yr, and it is a ton of strain as a result of you already know when you’re in it, you are going to be taking part in a very powerful crew. It will be good to maneuver ourselves one step ahead, so we nonetheless have work to do.”

Gushue gained world gold in 2017 at Edmonton however has settled for silver on three events since, together with final yr in Ottawa.