Canada’s Jacobs wins bronze at world men’s curling playdowns

Canada’s Brad Jacobs defeated China’s Xiaoming Xu 11-2 on Sunday to win the bronze medal at the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship.

Jacobs, vice Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert scored three points in the first end and pulled away by scoring five points in the fourth.

“We wanted to come out of this thing strong,” Jacobs said.

Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller was to play Scotland’s Bruce Mouat for gold later Sunday at the Temple Gardens Centre.

Jacob’s host team earned the top seed with an 11-1 round-robin record but lost to the top-ranked Mouat in a heartbreaker semifinal on Saturday.

Jacobs was aggressive from the start in the third-place game, using his first throw to make a nifty split that put the pressure on his opponents.

Xu flashed a stone and Jacobs made the draw for three.

Canada put more rocks in play in the third end and Xu had to draw against four counters to pick up his first point.

The rout was on in the fourth as China missed an in-off that allowed Jacobs to make a hit for five.

“Coming out of the gate strong with a three was awesome,” Jacobs said. “And then the five obviously broke the game wide open.”

The Chinese players offered to concede after the seventh end but the umpires advised that the eight-end minimum was required. It made for an unusual finish as players quickly threw their stones just to officially complete the proceedings.

Canada’s last title at this event came in 2017 when Brad Gushue was victorious in Edmonton.

Jacobs won silver in his only other worlds appearance in 2013 at Victoria.

Hebert and Kennedy won world titles in 2008 and 2016 with other teammates. Gallant won with Gushue in 2017.

Canada’s Rachel Homan successfully defended her world women’s title last month in South Korea.