New Zealand Curling

A polished performance ensured Nicole Muskatewitz (Germany) and Michael Brunner (Switzerland) walked away with the Gold medal in the Mixed Doubles at the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

They were too strong for Eunbi Kim (Korea) and Martin Sesaker (Norway), winning 13-2 after seven ends.

Each clip from the Innsbruck2012 YouTube channel opens in a new window.

Mixed Doubles	Finals Gold & Bronze medal games	Round 2, Draw 2 inc NZL/CAN v CZE/RUS
Click on Read More link for Team Mixed Fours clips.
Round 2, Draw 1 inc SWE/NZL v RUS/USA	Round 1, Draw 4 inc NZL/SUI v USA/GBR	Round 1, Draw 3 inc ITA/NZL v GBR/CZE
Round 1, Draw 2 inc SWE/NZL v GBR/NOR	Round 1, Draw 1 inc NZL/SUI v JPN/GBR	Cultural Programme Intro to ice stock sport

Innsbruck, Austria – New Zealand's run in the curling competition at Innsbruck ended after the remaining two Kiwis were eliminated in the second knockout round of the Mixed Doubles.

Luke Steele and his Swedish partner Johanna Heldrin were well beaten 10-3 in the first draw of the day. Later in the day, Kelsi Heath and her Canadian teammate Thomas Scoffin lost a thriller on the last shot of the game.

Innsbruck, Austria – Switzerland won the gold medal in the Mixed Fours Team Curling Competition at the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games. They beat Italy 6-4, so the Italians took the silver medal. Canada won the bronze in beating Sweden 6-4.

The medal games also determined the final make-up of the Mixed Doubles competition, where one male and one female player from different countries will play a knockout competition. New Zealand's four curlers will partner players from Canada, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.

Eleanor Adviento's (NZL) eyes grew as wide as the Curling stone she was sweeping glided toward a crowded house in the eighth end against China at the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games on Sunday.

The New Zealanders needed to score two points in that final end of their Mixed Curling match against the highly-rated Chinese and a picture-perfect shot secured their 7-6 triumph.

The first Pacific-Asia Junior Curling Camp, run jointly by the World Curling Federation and the New Zealand Curling Association, has just wrapped up at the Maniototo Curling International indoor rink in Naseby.

24 Junior curlers from Japan, Australia and New Zealand took part in the 6 day camp in early January – including junior athletes who will heading to Innsbruck, Austria for the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games this month.

The New Zealand team to compete at the 2012 World Men’s Curling Championship has been announced. The NZ Curling Association has confirmed that Peter de Boer, Sean Becker, Scott Becker, Kenny Thomson and Phil Dowling, with coach Peter Becker, will travel to Switzerland in March.

At last month's Pacific-Asia Championship in China the same side won the silver medal that qualified New Zealand for the World Championship for the first time since 2005.

Nanjing, China – New Zealand's curlers have ended a successful 2011 Pacific-Asia Curling Championship in China with one of their best results there in years.

The Kiwi men earned a silver medal in the final and – more importantly – entry into next year's World Men's Championship with their semi-final win. The NZ women also surprised with a bronze medal to complete an excellent final day for the squad.