Canada's Glenn Howard captured his first world curling championship as a skip with an 8-3 trouncing of Germany's Andy Kapp in eight ends in Sunday's gold-medal game in Edmonton.
The win by Howard and his Coldwater, Ont., rink of third Richard Hart, second Brent Laing and lead Craig Savill gave Canada its 30th men's world title, and the first since Randy Ferbey's 2005 victory.
Glenn Howard delighted the partisan Edmonton crowd on Sunday by guiding his Canadian rink to gold in the world curling championship at Rexall Place.
(Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
"Pinch me, I'm dreaming," Howard told CBC. "I've got to give so much credit to my three guys, because that's the best week of curling I've seen."
Howard has now figured prominently in three of Canada's gold medals. He played third on the 1987 and 1993 world championship teams skipped by his older brother, Russ Howard.
Germany, which has never won the worlds, finished as the runner-up for the fifth time, including Kapp's loss to Sweden in the 1997 final.
Howard wasted no time in delighting the partisan Albertans on hand at Rexall Place, strolling into the arena sporting a Stetson, then promptly scoring four in the opening end to take a commanding lead.
Kapp managed to cut his deficit to 5-2 after five ends, but Howard countered with three points in the sixth to put the game out of reach.
Howard's fast start Sunday was fitting, as he dominated the competition from the outset of the tournament, breezing through the round robin with a sparkling 10-1 record.
The only blemish came in Howard's ninth game, when he suffered a narrow 7-6 defeat at the hands of American Todd Birr, who finished with the second-best record in round-robin play.
The Canadian skip, though, got his revenge in Friday's 1 vs. 2 Page playoff, pounding Birr 7-2 to earn a berth in the final.
Kapp then knocked off Birr 6-4 in Saturday's semifinal to earn the final date with Howard.
Midway through Sunday's final, officials announced a total attendance figure of 184,973 for the week-long tournament — including 10,082 for the final — breaking the previous record set in 2003 in Winnipeg.
Following Kelly Scott's victory in last month's women's curling worlds, it's the first time since 2000 that Canada has held both the men's and women's titles.
