Canadian clean sweep at inaugural Curling World Cup

Kevin Koe, BJ Neufeld, Colton Flasch and Ben Hebert beat the Norwegian quartet, led by Steffen Walstad 6-5 in a dramatic men's final in Suzhou, China.

That followed Rachel Homan putting in a flawless performance to lead her rink to a 7-3 victory over Sweden in the women's final, while the day began with Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres clinching mixed doubles gold by beating the United States 7-3.

The Canadians were ultimately unstoppable in every discipline but with his team having only practised together a couple of times before flying out to China – after Neufeld and Flasch joined the rink over the summer break – Koe claims the men's final performance surpassed all expectations.

"We're really happy," said the skip. "This is the first event of the year and we hadn't played together before properly. There's some really good teams here. We didn't know what to expect.

"It's an outstanding facility here. Whoever gets to play in these are pretty lucky and we're really glad we get to play in another one at the end of the year in the Grand Final. That will be fun too.

"The second was a big end and after that, we managed to keep control. We weren't really in trouble in any end."

Koe executed a takeout for three in the second end to give the Canadians a 3-1 advantage and once they led 5-2 after four ends, they comfortably saw the game out – with the game more one-sided than the final scoreline might suggest.

In the women's final, Homan's rink dominated throughout with the skip herself once again at the forefront, as she has been all week.

The 29-year-old produced a straight takeout for two in the second end before a hit-and-roll to steal one in the third was arguably even more impressive.

Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg's inch-perfect draw in the sixth secured two points and narrowed the deficit to 4-3 but Canada blanked the seventh and took three in the last end with a perfectly-judged takeout to secure a place in May's Grand Final

"It's really exciting," said Homan. "This is the first event of the year and I'm really proud of my team-mates. It was a grind.

"Both teams played so well. Anna's team was phenomenal right to the end. That was a tough shot at the end. It was a great line call and great sweeping, so I'm just really proud of my team.

"There were quite a few key shots in that game that we had to make and we did. It was an all-round good game for my team.

"Getting to the Grand Final was our goal coming in here as this is the only World Cup leg we're going to."

The day started with Walker and Muyres triumphing over Sarah Anderson and Korey Dropkin of the US, with a steal for three in the fifth end proving crucial in the 7-3 victory.

And Walker enjoyed getting one over on her North American rivals to kickstart the Canadian dominance.

"It was a great battle and the United States put a lot of pressure on us early," she said. "I have to thank my partner for keeping us in it. It feels great.

"The pool format is cut-throat. You need to come first in your pool and if you lose only one game, it could mean you don't qualify, so it's been fun, a lot of pressure-packed games, and it's nice to play something different."