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Canada’s Paulsen settles for silver at world junior curling championship

Another year, another world junior curling championship for Scotland’s Eve Muirhead.

PERTH — Another year, another world junior curling championship for Scotland’s Eve Muirhead.

Muirhead captured a record fourth title Sunday, defeating Saskatoon’s Trish Paulsen 10-3 in the women’s final Sunday at the world championships. The win was Muirhead’s third as the skip after serving as the third on the ’07 championship squad.

Canada last won the women’s junior championship in 2003.

Earlier, Regina’s Braeden Moskowy lost 10-2 in eight ends to Norway in the men’s bronze medal contest.

Paulsen came into the final with definite momentum after registering two playoff wins Saturday. The Canadians upset Russian Anna Sidorova 9-8 in the semifinals after earlier downing Sweden’s Jonna McManus 9-6 in the Page 3 versus 4 playoff game.

But Muirhead opened quickly with two in the first, narrowly missing a count of three when her final stone rolled out of the house. After the two sides exchanged singles over the next two ends, Muirhead recorded a steal of three in the fourth for a 6-1 lead after Paulsen was light with her draw.

Scotland cemented the contest with a steal of two in the seventh for a commanding 10-2 lead. Paulsen’s rink scored one on the eighth before shaking hands.

“We just didn’t play our greatest game, Scotland came out and played very well,” a tearful Paulsen said. “I missed a few key shots and it just didn’t go our way.

“But I’ve felt proud of every game we won.”

Muirhead, 20, said the quick start was the key for Scotland.

“We knew we had to come out strong, Canada is a great team,” she said. “We gave them nothing and that’s the way we wanted to play.

“To win it four times feels pretty good . . . but this is special. I’m finished with juniors now, but I don’t think I could have achieved any more in my junior career than to win the world title four times.”

For Moskowy, the bronze medal loss capped a roller-coaster tournament for the Saskatchewan rink.

The Canadians opened the event with three straight losses, won their next seven contests before finishing with two consecutive defeats in the medal round.

Moskowy’s rink was relegated to the bronze medal contest after a heart-breaking 6-5 semifinal decision to Switzerland on Saturday night.

The Swiss secured the victory with a draw to the button on their final rock.

Norway opened Sunday’s game with a steal of one in the first end and led 4-0 after three. After Canada scored one in the fourth, Norway added three in the fifth before the Canadians countered with another in the sixth.

But again, Norway had an effective counter with two in the seventh and Moskowy conceded the contest in the eighth before his final rock had reached the circles.

“We came out flat and they played well and there wasn’t much we could do,” he said. “It was a quick turnaround after (Saturday night’s) game and we just couldn’t turn it on.

“We just came out deflated and didn’t play well, and didn’t play enough shots.”