Edmonton: The Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2017 began on Saturday (1 April) afternoon in the Northlands Coliseum, in Edmonton, Canada – with a win for the host nation.
After an opening ceremony that featured legendary home-town players from the past – including 90-year-old Matt Baldwin and World Curling Federation (WCF) Hall-of-Famers Warren Hansen and Randy Ferbey, play got underway, in front of 5,754 strong crowd.
Making his first-ever appearance at a world championship, 2006 Olympic champion Brad Gushue lead the host nation team to a 7-5 win over Switzerland in this first session. The Canadians, produced a significant blow in the seventh end when Gushue drew his last stone into the house to score three points and take a 6-4 lead, on the way to an eventual 7-5 win.
USA faced Russia and in the fourth end the Americans moved into a clear 6-1 lead when their skip John Shuster played a raise double take-out to score three points from the end. The Russians conceded after six ends to give USA a 9-2 win.
Japan beat Italy with Japajn skip Yusukue Morozumi playing a double take-out that ran Italy out of stones and gave his team a 9-5 victory.
In the fourth game of the session, Germany faced Netherlands – who are competing in a World Men’s Curling Championship for the first time since 1994. Germany were the winners, by 6-5 after an extra end.
Statements of Winning Captains- World Men’s Curling Championship 2017
Brad Gushue; skip, Canada (after 7-5 win over Switzerland): “It was a really, really challenging sheet of ice. We got some open misses which were very fortunate. Those misses cost them a few points and that was the difference in the game.”
John Shuster; skip, USA (after 9-2 win over Russia): “We managed the rocks and the ice really well. Every single game is meaningful here – everybody plays everybody, so every win you can get is crucial. To start off at the top of the leader-board as opposed to having to fight from the bottom is a good way to start.”
Yusuke Morozumi; skip, Japan (after 9-5 win over Italy): “We thought we’d like to have a win to start. Now, we’d like to get into the top four.”
Alexander Baumann; skip, Germany (after 6-5 extra end win over Netherlands): “It’s really good to start with a win. It was a tough game. The first half wasn’t so good for us, but we managed to get up to speed in the second half and take a win. We want to perform good in the coming games, so that was a good start.”
Results after session one: Switzerland 5-7 Canada; Russia 2-9 USA; Japan 9-5 Italy; Netherlands 5-6 Germany
Standings after session one: World Men’s Curling Championship 2017
| Country | Win | Loss | |
| Canada | 1 | 0 | |
| Germany | 1 | 0 | |
| Japan | 1 | 0 | |
| USA | 1 | 0 | |
| China | 0 | 0 | |
| Norway | 0 | 0 | |
| Scotland | 0 | 0 | |
| Sweden | 0 | 0 | |
| Italy | 0 | 1 | |
| Netherlands | 0 | 1 | |
| Russia | 0 | 1 | |
| Switzerland | 0 | 1 | |