Sudbury's Tracy Fleury wins gold at world curling championship

Sudburian wins gold at curling world championships Skip Rachel Homan with Sudbury's Tracy Fleury playing third defeated Switzerland, 7-5, to win the women’s world curling championship.

Riding one of the strongest seasons in recent curling history, Canada skip Rachel Homan and third Tracy Fleury had every reason to be confident entering the final at the World Women's Curling Championship.

On Sunday night, they again showed no fear and it paid off with Homan's first world title since 2017.

CP170293090 Canada skip Rachel Homan, left to right, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew, Sarah Wilkes and Rachel Brown hold the trophy after defeating Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni rink at the World Women's Curling Championship gold medal game in Sydney, N.S. on Sunday, March 24, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn)

Homan and along with her top-ranked third, Sudbury resident Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes ran the table at the national championship and picked up where they left off against the 13-team field at Centre 200.

Fleury works at Laurentian University in the finance department.

"The more games we have together, the stronger we get," said Fleury, who joined the team at the start of the quadrennial.

In the eighth end of the final match, Fleury made a hit that rolled frozen on the button and Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland couldn't blast out the Canadian stones.

Homan made a game-turning split for three points in the ninth end and forced Tirinzoni to concede in the 10th for a 7-5 victory.

"I believed in my team and my team believed in me," Homan said.

Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre congratulated Fleury and Team Canada on social media.

"Congratulations to … Sudbury’s Tracy Fleury and Team Canada on winning gold at the Women’s Curling World Championship," said Lefebvre.

"What an amazing accomplishment!"

– With files from The Canadian Press