Skip to main content

Glenn Howard

Canada's Glenn Howard defeated Norway's Thomas Ulsrud 8-3 on Monday to remain unbeaten at the world men's curling championship.



Howard scored a pair in the sixth end and added two more points in the eighth end before the teams shook hands. Ulsrud, the 2010 Olympic silver medallist, never got on track and made several uncharacteristic errors.



"We kept putting pressure on him and he was missing," Howard said. "The recipe for a win."



The veteran Ontario skip improved to 4-0 after six draws of round-robin play. Howard, a three-time world champion, will play Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic in the evening draw.



Two other powerhouse rinks are right behind Canada in the standings. Sweden is undefeated at 3-0 while Scotland is alone in third place at 3-1 after an 8-3 victory over Germany.



In the other early games, the United States edged Denmark 7-6 and New Zealand was given credit for a victory over France. An official score wasn't entered because France ran out of time with two stones left in the 10th end.



New Zealand was ahead 6-5 at the time.



China is in fourth place at 2-1 and Denmark, New Zealand and France are tied at 2-2. The Czechs are 1-2 and Norway is even with Germany and the Americans at 1-3.



Host Switzerland is the only winless rink at 0-3.



Attendance was low once again with only a few hundred people on hand at the 9,000-seat St. Jakobshalle. Official attendance numbers weren't released.



Howard said he and teammates Wayne Middaugh, Brent Laing and Craig Savill are all shooting well and have made the adjustment to the ice and conditions.



"I'm always talking about peaks and valleys," Howard said. "Our valleys aren't too bad and that's the good news. We're always up there pretty high. That was a really good game.



"We came out and were really playing well and caught Norway on an off day. Good timing."



Howard shot 88 per cent for the game, well ahead of Ulsrud at just 56 per cent. Canada shot 91 per cent overall to 77 per cent for Norway.



Round-robin play continues through Thursday night and playoff games are scheduled for the weekend. Teams also have an opportunity to earn Olympic qualifying points for their countries at the competition.



Howard's previous world titles came in 1987, 1993 and 2007. Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton beat Scotland 6-5 in last year's world championship in Regina.

Interact with The Globe