News Champions Cup

Russia’s Victoria Moiseeva capped her stunning debut at the European Curling Championships with a gold medal victory.

Moiseeva stole two points in the final frame to upset Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 6-4 during Saturday’s final in Renfrewshire, Scotland.

Hasselborg, ranked No. 1 on the World Curling Tour’s year-to-date standings, held the hammer coming home all tied up and looked to draw to the eighth-foot circle for the win, however, she wrecked on a guard with her last.

The team of Moiseeva, third Uliana Vasileva, second Galina Arsenkina and lead Julia Guzieva has now qualified for the Humpty’s Champions Cup.

Moiseeva joins defending champ Jennifer Jones, WFG Masters winner Allison Flaxey, Tour Challenge victor Val Sweeting and Pacific-Asia champion EunJung Kim among those who have clinched berths for the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event running April 25-30 in Calgary.

Humpty’s Champions Cup: Full event passes are now on sale! Visit thegrandslamofcurling.com/tickets for more details.

Moiseeva was playing in the European tournament for the first time her career after shocking reigning champ and perennial Russian rep Anna Sidorova during playdowns. The upsets continued for Moiseeva as she qualified for the playoffs with a 6-3 record and toppled top-seed Eve Muirhead of Scotland 11-6 during the semifinals.

Muirhead, who rolled through the round-robin posting a 9-0 record, settled for third place on home ice defeating Czech Republic’s Anna Kubeskova 6-2 in Friday’s bronze medal match.

Sweden opened the final with the hammer and Hasselborg scored a deuce in the first end for an early 2-0 lead. Looking at a pair of counters, Moiseeva drew to the button for a single in the second.

Hasselborg kept the third clean to blank the end and retook the two-point advantage in the fourth after Moiseeva tucked her last behind a guard to force a draw for one.

Sweden caught a lucky break in the fifth as Moiseeva had an opportunity to hit and stick for two, but her shooter rolled out of the rings to only count one as Hasselborg remained in the lead 3-2 at the midway mark.

Russia tied it up in the sixth on a steal when Hasselborg came up light on her first skip stone and Moiseeva capitalized to bury her last behind cover at the top of the button. Hasselborg looked at making a runback takeout, however, she opted for the less tricky draw instead and was just wide by a couple inches.

Another blank in seven kept the game knotted up and Sweden pulled back into the lead 4-3 in eight as Hasselborg landed on the lid with her last while looking at two counters.

Russia looked to be setting up for a deuce to go ahead in the ninth, however, Hasselborg sat shot rock partially buried and Moiseeva wasn’t able to tap it out far enough as it stayed in the house for second shot. That limited her to just another single and set the table for the dramatic final end.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s Niklas Edin completed a three-peat on the men’s side edging Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud 6-5 in an extra end during the final.

Team Edin already booked their Humpty’s Champions Cup spot winning the WFG Masters last month becoming the first European men’s squad to capture a Grand Slam.

Peter de Cruz of Switzerland earned the men’s bronze medal beating Russia’s Alexey Timofeev 8-6 Friday.