Curler Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann wins European Championship silver with Switzerland

The 29-year-old from Cham, who now lives in the canton of Solothurn, celebrated a respectable success in Sweden with the newly formed Tirinzoni team.

The Swiss team, which includes Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann from Cham, won the silver medal at the European Championships in Östersund, Sweden. After a 4:4 score in the last end of the final, Switzerland had to play an extra end against Denmark, which they lost 0:4.

The Swiss thereby narrowly missed the gold medal, but Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann was later able to feel proud of the second place, as she explained:

"You always want to win when you reach the final. The disappointment was still there on Saturday morning after the game, but I'm happy about silver this Sunday."

Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann (front) loses the European Championship final with her team in the extra end.                  Photo: Mats Andersson/Freshfocus/ Zuma/TT

She adds: "We’ve only been playing together in this new formation for a few months. Our path is right, we can build on this European Championship."

This was her first international medal at adult level: she won bronze at the Junior World Championships in 2015.

Long wait for European Championship gold
The dry spell with regard to winning gold at a European Championship continues for the Swiss. The last time this was achieved was eight years ago, in their home town of Champéry, with skip Binia Feltscher. Schwaller-Hürlimann's current teammate Carole Howald was a substitute for the Swiss team at the time.

Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann's husband Yannick Schwaller, with whom she lives in the canton of Solothurn, was also active at the European Championships in Östersund. He led the Swiss team to the final as skip, where the team lost to Scotland with 4:5.