MONCTON, N.B. April 5, 2009 — Norway's Thomas Ulsrud has capped a perfect opening weekend at the 2009 Ford world men's curling championship.

The two-time bronze-medallist from Oslo and teammates third Torger Nergard, second Christoffer Svae and lead Havard Vad Petersson laid an 8-2 pounding on Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic Sunday afternoon at the Moncton Coliseum to improve to 3-0, tops in the 12-team round-robin standings.

Norway stole single points in the second, fourth and sixth ends, as well as a stolen three in the fifth end and never let the Czechs, 1-2, establish any momentum.

"It's a good start for us, but to be honest, when I saw the draw, I pretty much hoped to win the first three," said Ulsrud. "You never know for sure, but on paper, I think we're a better team than the ones we faced so far."

Canada's Kevin Martin, meanwhile, improved to 2-0 by drubbing Thomas Dufour of France 7-2. Canada gave up a steal of one in the first end, but bounced back with two in the second end, and went on to steal two more in the fourth and three in the fifth. France dropped to 1-1 with the loss.

In other Draw 4 action, Japan's Yusuke Morozumi won the Pacific Rim battle in impressive fashion, crushing Fengchun Wang of China 10-2. The Japanese, 1-1, broke open a tight game by scoring three in the sixth end and four more in the seventh to hand China its second loss in as many games.

In the other afternoon tilt, Denmark's Ulrik Schmidt finally hit the win column after losing his first two games. The Danes stole two in the first end, then snuffed out a comeback by scoring three in the seventh in a 7-5 victory over Kalle Kiiskinen of Finland. The result left both teams with 1-2 records.

Scotland's David Murdoch (1-1), John Shuster of the United States (1-1), Andy Kapp of Germany (1-1) and Ralph Stoeckli of Switzerland (1-1) all had byes in Draw 4.

Play at the Ford Worlds concludes Sunday with the 6:30 p.m. draw (all times Eastern).

On Monday, draws are scheduled for 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. TSN is televising the Canadian games (noon against the Czechs, 6:30 against Germany), while coverage also is available at curltv.com.