The out-going head coach of the Scottish curling programme last night paid tribute to the efforts of the youngsters who claimed medals in both the men's and women's events at the World Junior Championships but also issued a warning about the need to raise overall standards.

Soren Gran, who steered the British men's team to a long awaited medal at last year's Winter Olympics but will stand down at the end of this season, said the performances of the rinks skipped by Gina Aitken, who reached the final of the women's event and Bruce Mouat, who finished on a high by winning their bronze medal decider, reflected considerable consistency within the set-up.

However he also noted that the Canadian teams that dominated in the Estonian capital Tallinn, just as their compatriots did in Sochi last year, are operating at a different level.

"Scottish curling maintained a good and high standard with these two medals," said the Swede.

"We have a good grip on play-off spots year after year.

"The Scottish girls have done a great job this season, improving from seventh last year. They still have a lot of work to do to move to the next level out from juniors. I do not know if they can or will do that but they have talent.

"The boys went in to play off ranked fourth but the medal table is right. Canada was one head higher in both boys and girls this year.

"To reach Canadian level Scottish curling need to get more commitment and hard-working mentality. If not we will continue to fight for silver and bronze medals."

Canada's gold medals were fully earned in a week that saw their women go unbeaten through 11 matches while their men won all bar one of their round-robin matches before dominating the knockout stages.

Team Aitken's silver reflected the week's form that saw them finish second place after the round-robin stages, but prove unable to make any impact in three meetings with Kelsey Rocque's defending champions, losing to them 9-2 in both the round-robin stages and the first of the play-offf matches, before suffering an 8-2 defeat in yesterday's final.

The Edinburgh 21-year-old had been bidding to emulate her father and coach David by becoming a World Junior champion, but she was able to put the week's work into perspective.

"It was a really good game," said Aitken.

"I think both teams actually played really well and in the end it just came down to a few shots that didn't come off for us and then Kelsey and her team played well and took advantage of it. We are a little disappointed but in a couple of hours or a couple of days we'll be delighted with what we've done."

For Team Mouat, however, it was third time lucky as they showed their capacity to adjust to competition and conditions in finally getting the better of Sweden in the bronze medal match.

"It feels really good. It wasn't our best week here but satisfied with the bronze. We've got a great team dynamic and the guys played awesome all week so I'm just chuffed, said the 20-year-old skip.

His team began their week impressively, winning five of their first six matches before suffering back-to-back defeats to Braden Calvert's Canadians and Fredrik Nyman's Sweden in the round-robin stages and they were knocked out of title contention when, having finished fourth in that round-robin stage, they lost their third v fourth page play-off match against the Swedes.

Consequently, after Romano Meier's Swiss rink - the only others to have beaten Mouat - beaten Nyman's men in their semi-final, the Scots were confronted with a considerable test of character in yesterday's medal decider but took control with a three at the third end and maintained it thereafter in running out 8-3 winners.