Finns and Germans are going to the world.

The Finns beat the Estonians in their semi-final. They were actually better and held the baton for most of the game. They deserved to be in the final. The semi-final between the Czechs and the French was much more exciting. In the second end, our selection happily played a deuce after a gross error by the French and, on the contrary, in the fourth end the Czechs made a mistake and let the Vincent brothers into a deuce. The second half of the match offered an interesting fifth end, where King's runback missed the opponent's stone by a hair's breadth and instead of our one (maybe even two) the opponent scored one and especially the seventh end, where a hope for a three (four was also possible) opened up, but a mere two sent the match to the last end in a balanced state with France's advantage. Joffrey Vincent managed the last stone and the Czechs were left with only tears of disappointment. After a great performance in the group (six wins, including a victory over the later champions Finland) there was no place left for us in the final. The team, consisting of Lukáš Klíma - skip (third stones), Petr Král (last stones), Marek Černovský, Samuel Mokris and Jiří Deyl, showed good quality, but in an important moment they did not manage the situation. The result is disappointing, and despite a sympathetic and fighting performance, it means only one thing, namely the non-participation of the boys' team at the World Championships 2010. More preparatory matches abroad could have helped. Both final duels offered uninteresting curling in the first halves, accompanied by a number of mistakes, probably caused by the nervousness of the participants, but the end of both finals was thrilling, the extra ends falling prey to teams without an advantage. The frustration of the French was immense, they had the win within their grasp. The Danes must have been disappointed to lose the final, they had the victory in their grasp several times. Corinna Scholz (Germany) will therefore have a busy spring (Olympic Games, World Junior Championships and World Women's Championships).

photographed by Jiri Deyl - "a little to the right", Czech back end, fans