Olympic Mixed Doubles partners Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds have set their sights on reclaiming the world title they won last year as their 2022/23 campaign gets properly underway in Canada this weekend.
The pair have been limbering up against domestic competition in the National Curling Academy and they know from harsh experience that doing so is the ideal preparation for international competition since it was at home rather than abroad that they lost their world title last season. 
The pair were beaten in the final of the Scottish Mixed Doubles Championship by their regular teammates Bobby Lammie and Eve Muirhead, who went on to demonstrate the British Curling programme’s growing strength by winning all 11 round-robin and play-off matches at the World Championships to keep that title in Scotland.
Having won their world title in Aberdeen in 2021, they begin this season with another formidable challenge as they head across the Atlantic for the first time together, to contest the Hardline Open in Ottawa which boasts a powerful field and will offer an early indicator of their readiness for what is to come.
”I’m very excited to be playing with Jen again, we had a very good start to the season playing in the NCA Mixed Doubles and it’s been a lot of fun and hopefully we can take that on to a new stage for us both as we have not really played together in Canada before and looking forward to seeing what we can do,” said Mouat.
“We have both set as our goal this season getting back to the Worlds. A World Championships is always something to strive for and we are hoping that we can get there and recreate what we did in Aberdeen in 2021.” 
Having narrowly missed out on winning a medal together in Mixed Doubles at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, both bounced back brilliantly with Dodds playing second in the rink that claimed women’s gold, while Mouat led his team to the final of the men’s event and they are now looking to build on that experience.
“We learnt a lot at the Olympics and obviously the disappointment of finishing fourth we have a real drive to improve on that in the years down the line,” said Dodds.
“Just now we are going to be concentrating on the things that we identified from the Olympics that we know we need to improve on and we are just going to go out there and enjoy it.”
Dodds is also heading into her first season as a Mixed Doubles specialist, having opted to step away from the women’s game following that Olympic triumph. 
“I decided to focus on Mixed Doubles as I want to put my energy and just concentrate on one event this season and I have got a lot of energy and motivation to do so moving forward, so I am really looking forward to the season ahead and playing with Bruce,” she explained.
Elsewhere, his team having made an early impact at senior level this season with a fourth place finish at the Oslo Cup earlier this month, World Junior Championship winning skip James Craik leads his team at the Tallin Men’s International this weekend while younger brother Ross skips his rink at the European Junior Curling Tour event in Prague along with Fay Henderson’s quartet who are looking to continue their momentum after an unbeaten run at the Asham U21 Slam in Greenacres last weekend.
Images: Team GB/David Pearce
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