After missing the podium last year, Team Canada is bringing home the bronze medal from the 2015 World Men’s Curling Championship in Halifax.
Alternate Tom Sallows from Grande Prairie joined the rink of John Morris, Pat Simmons, Nolan Thiessen and GP native Carter Rycroft for the Brier, and says while they’re proud, they have mixed emotions.
“Not going to lie, it was a little bittersweet standing on the side of the podium, rather than on the centre, watching Sweden march down the middle of the ice. We really wanted to do that march one more time this year, but that’s how it goes. Those guys want to win just as bad as we do.”
Canada fell to Sweden in the semi finals, but came back to beat Finland for the bronze.
Sallows compares Sweden’s slow start but strong finish to theirs at the this year’s Brier.
Despite not getting the result they wanted, Sallows says the whole experience has helped him grow as a curler.
“I think I’ve probably learned just as much or more in the last couple months than I have in the rest of my curling career, especially when it comes to big game and big competition, events like that. It’s amazing what those guys know and there’s a reason they’ve been winners for years.”
He hopes to return one day with the team again or with his own crew.