Sweden men defend title at European Curling Championships

The Swedish men's team successfully defended their title 7-6 against Switzerland at the European Curling

Championships, in Esbjerg, western Denmark, on Saturday.

In a tight encounter in the Granly Hockey Arena, Switzerland's skip Benoit Schwarz opened the scoring in the first end with hitting out a Swedish stone for two points. After two blanked ends, Sweden's skip

Niklas Edin drew level.

In the fifth end, the Swiss also played a hit to score 1 point and moved his team into the lead 3-2. However, Sweden scored 2 points in the sixth end to overtake Switzerland by 4-3. In the seventh end,

Schwarz drew to the button to score a single and tie the game again at 4-4.

Sweden scored 2 points to take the lead 6-4 in the eighth end. The teams were tied at 6-6 after the regulation ten ends and Edin drew his last stone into the house to score one point in the extra end that

finally gave them a 7-6 win to claim the gold medal.

The tournament has not been so easy for the Swedes. They endured four

losses during the round-robin stage and played a tiebreaker before battling their way to the final.

Norway won the bronze medal by edging off Finland 7-4 on Friday. Endi