Next week’s Hendrick’s Gin Scottish Curling Championships are promising to produce the highest calibre curling ever seen in the history of the event with reigning Olympic, World, World Junior, European and Youth Olympic champions all taking to the ice.
The competition takes place at the Dumfries Ice Bowl from February 4-10 and the strength in depth in the men’s field in particular is at an unprecedented level, with five Scottish teams currently occupying top 20 spots in the world rankings.
World and European champions Team Mouat will be looking to defend the title and win the event for the fifth time in their last five appearances, but currently ranked third in the world, they are just one place above Team Whyte.
Former World Junior champion James Craik will meanwhile be looking to go one better than last year when they reached the final and pushed Bruce Mouat’s men to the limit, while 2018 Olympian Kyle Waddell is looking to reclaim the title he won as part of Team Paterson two years ago.
The current junior ranks are represented by the all-teenage quartet of Team Carson, who won a bronze medal at the World Juniors on their debut last year and have just been boosted by two of their members – Logan Carson and Archie Hyslop – returning from the Youth Winter Olympics with gold medals, as well as Team Ross Craik, which also features members of the Carson and Hyslop clans.
In the women’s game, world number 13 ranked Team Morrison, are looking to claim a third successive title having added Olympic gold medallist Jen Dodds to their ranks this season, but they can expect a strong challenge from the rink skipped by current World Junior Champion Fay Henderson, which includes Dodds’ Olympic winning teammate Hailey Duff.
Three of Henderson’s World Junior Championship winning teammates, Robyn Munro, Holly Wilkie-Milne and Laura Watt have meanwhile formed a new line-up along with Lisa Davie, with Munro taking on skipping duties.
With World Championship selection set to take place soon afterwards, there could not be much more at stake since performances at this event are among several factors taken into consideration, potentially providing those making the decisions with the best possible headaches, as British Curling’s Chief Executive Officer Nigel Holl acknowledged.
“This is an extraordinary time for our sport and in particular our Olympic programme,” he said.
“Of the 11 gold medals available at the six major team championships we send athletes to – the Olympics, the World Championships, the European Championships, the World Juniors, the World University Games and the Youth Winter Olympics – we currently hold more than half.
“On top of that, two different Scottish teams won the 2021 and 2022 Mixed Doubles World Championships and our mixed doubles pair have just matched their teammates in winning gold at the Winter Youth Olympics.
“It is clear that the system British Curling has developed at the National Curling Academy in Stirling, since it opened in 2017, is performing exceptionally well.
“However, far from resting on our laurels, we are striving for ever higher standards and I am hoping we will see evidence of that in Dumfries this week.”
Both the men’s and women’s events get underway on Sunday evening (Feb 4), ahead of the first full day action on Monday and action from each round of play is set to be streamed live.
Please click here to the Scottish Curling website for the schedule and results.
Please click here for tickets.
Please click here for streaming from Curling Stadium Europe.
Images: WCF/Celine Stucki & Anil Mungal/GSOC
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