Meggan Dawson-Farrell will make her playing debut at The Kuntai World Wheelchair Curling Championships when the event gets underway at The Ice Cube in Beijing tomorrow.
Taking place from October 23-30, the Championships will double as a test event since it will feature 12 teams competing in a format that mirrors the one that has been put in place for next year’s Paralympics at the same venue. 
ParalympicsGB is guaranteed representation at the Beijing Paralympics thanks to the points already accrued by Scotland teams at the last two World Championships, which means the players selected this time around - skip Hugh Nibloe, Gregor Ewan, David Melrose, Dawson-Farrell and Charlotte McKenna - go into the event knowing they can put down a marker.
And for Dawson-Farrell it is all the more exciting to know that she will be playing in the opening match after spending last year’s World Championships on the sidelines as the team’s alternate.
“This is an experience I will never forget and I can’t wait,” she said.
“It feels great to be back at a Worlds after my first experience at Wetzikon in 2020. This time I will actually get to play which is really exciting and I cannot wait for that first opportunity to step on the ice. That is going to be a very special moment.
“Wetzikon was obviously great to get that first experience to see how a World Champs works and being an alternate meant I had the chance to watch a lot of what was going on and really absorb the whole experience.
“This time there will be quite a lot of adrenalin and nerves but that is good, it is going to be thrilling to be able to play this time.”
The 27-year-old from Tullibody is looking to add to an impressive sporting CV that saw her represent Scotland as a track athlete at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, before she decided to switch sports.
“It is amazing to think this is the ice venue that will host the Olympics and Paralympics in 2022 and where a previous Games were also hosted,” she said.
“It is a spectacular venue, really bright and fresh and I cannot wait to get in there and compete, get a feel for the ice and hopefully I might get the chance to experience it again for the Paralympics.
“It is a great honour to be representing Scotland again, especially here in China which will host the events that are the very pinnacle of our sport.
“I could not be prouder and it could not be more exciting than to have this opportunity and I hope to make the very most of this experience in the hope I will be back here in a few months time.”
The Scots get their campaign underway against Norway on the opening day. The championship will begin with a round-robin stage from Saturday (23 October) until Thursday (28 October), ahead of a six-team play-off. In that play-off the teams ranked first and second at the end of the round robin progress directly to the semi-finals. Each of their opponents will be decided by a qualification round where the third ranked team will play the sixth ranked team and the fourth ranked team will play the fifth. The winners of these games advance to the semi-finals on Friday (29 October) at 19:05.
The bronze medal game will be played the following day (30 October) at 10:05 and the final will follow at 14:35 (all times are BJT (Beijing Time) GMT/UTC +8).
Scotland Team,
Hugh Nibloe
Gregor Ewan
David Melrose
Meggan Dawson Farrell
Charlotte McKenna (alternate)
#curling #WWhCC2021
Team Pic: WCF/Aline Pavlyuchik
