Beaverlodge's Geoff Walker celebrates Brier championship with friends and family in Kingston, Ontario. (Photo: Facebook / Curling Canada)

By Shane Clausing

Curling

Beaverlodge’s Geoff Walker reacts to winning third Brier in four years

Mar 9, 2020 | 3:38 PM

Beaverlodge’s Geoff Walker is once again a Brier champion.

Sunday in Kingston, Ontario, Walker and his teammates from Newfoundland and Labrador defeated Brenden Bottcher and Alberta 8-3 in the championship final, to give them their third title in four years.

Walker spoke about what it meant to get back on top of the podium.

“It’s unbelievable, just the fact that we’ve won three in four years is hard to fathom, it’s been a special run over this last little while.”

The road to the final was more unique than previous Briers.

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When the championship round came to an end, there were four teams tied with the same record for the final playoff spot. That meant that the other teams would have to play three extra games.

Luckily for Walker and his teammates, they were able to avoid the tiebreaker scenario and were able to get some rest for the 3 vs 4 playoff.

“The big thing is we were able to avoid the tiebreaker heading into the last day. We knew we were going to get someone who had played three games, we had a little bit of an advantage of getting that tired team and it ended up working out,” said Walker.

In the 3 vs 4 playoff, Newfoundland and Labrador would defeat Northern Ontario 7-4 and set-up a semi-final match-up with Saskatchewan on Sunday for the right to play Alberta in the final. Newfoundland and Labrador won the semi-final by a score of 7-6.

Due to the number of tiebreaker games that had to be played, Walker and his team would have to play their semi-final match in the afternoon on championship Sunday.

Walker adds his rink was more excited than nervous to play in the championship game.

“Over the last year and a half, we haven’t won anything. We played really well and after a few years of a lot of success, we ran into something where we just couldn’t seem to win. We had been there before, so I think we were just excited to try and win a big event again and get the monkey off the back over the last year and a half.”

The team will take a break for the next week and begin training for the World Curling Championships in Glasgow, Scotland on March 28.

Walker says that his team is ready to represent Canada on the international stage.

“We have been to worlds twice now over the last few years, so we know what to expect. We’ve played most of the teams that are going to be there at some point over the last few years whether it was on tour or at the Worlds. We believe that if we play the game that we can play we can beat anybody.”