Scotland will get their BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championships campaign underway in Nova Scotia knowing that the event doubles as the first opportunity to gain qualifying points for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, but they are determined not to get ahead of themselves.
A power-packed 13-team field has assembled for the event which takes place from March 16 to 24 in Sydney’s Centre 200, but with a current Olympic champion in their ranks in Jen Dodds, the Scots believe they are ready to compete with the world’s best.
“We have gained a lot of experience from previous World Championships and can hopefully take that forward this week,” said skip Rebecca Morrison. 
“It is a long week ahead so it is important to take it game by game and last year’s experience will help us through that.”
That includes recognising the need to concentrate on the competition itself, rather than the longer term implications in what is the first of two World Championships that will carry the points that will decide which teams will avoid the cut throat Olympic Qualifying tournament that Scotland’s Team Muirhead had to battle through before winning gold in Beijing two years ago.
“It is a really important year with the chance to gain Olympic qualifying points, but we are trying not to focus too much on that because our goals are the same,” said Morrison.
“We just want to finish with the highest result possible, so there is no need to overthink it.
“It is just about getting as many wins out there as you can and at the end of the week if we can look back and we have met our goals then we will be delighted and that will come with a lot of Olympic qualifying points as well, but in the meantime we are just focusing on game by game.”
They are up against four of the world’s current top five in Canada’s world number one ranked Team Homan, Switzerland’s four-time World Champions Team Tirinzoni, Korea’s Team Gim and Sweden’s 2018 Olympic champions Team Hasselborg, but those are all now familiar opponents.
“There is a great line-up at these championships and we have faced a lot of these teams on Tour this season,” said Morrison. 
“We have had a mixed bag of results against them, so every team will provide a great game and there is no one out there who is an easy game. Every country has got a great line-up.”
This will be Team Morrison’s third visit to a World Championships and, for all that their first was curtailed early when COVID struck their camp, they now feel much more comfortable in the big event atmosphere.
“It’s always an amazing experience competing in an arena,” said Morrison.
“Fortunately we have had the chance to be in that environment on multiple occasions since we had a strong start to the season which got us into the Slams, so it is not something new and we have that advantage that we didn’t have last year.
“As a result we are a lot more prepared than last year having played in more games against the top teams in the world, so the season we have had can only help prepare us for what is to come this week
“It feels amazing putting the Scotland kit on and these are the moments that we train for every season, so we are really glad we have this opportunity to come to Sydney and hope to represent Scotland with pride.
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Scotland Team
Rebecca Morrison
Jennifer Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Gina Aitken (alternate)
Team Coach Ross Paterson
Olympic Head Coach Greg Drummond
Schedule
Saturday 16 March
22.00hrs
Scotland –Norway
Sunday 17 March
12.00hrs (midday)
Scotland – New Zealand
22.00hrs
Scotland – Italy
Monday 18 March
12.00hrs (midday)
Scotland – Denmark
22.00hrs
Scotland – Sweden
Tuesday 19 March
12.00hrs (midday)
Scotland – Korea
22.00hrs
Scotland – Estonia
Wednesday 20 March
17.00hrs
Scotland – Switzerland
22.00hrs
Scotland – USA
Thursday 21 March
17.00hrs
Scotland – Turkiye
Friday 22 March
12.00hrs (midday)
Scotland – Japan
17.00hrs
Scotland – Canada
Saturday 23 March
14.00hrs
Qualification
20.00hrs
Semi Finals
Sunday 24 March
14.00hrs
Bronze Medal Game
20.00hrs
Gold Medal Game
Images: WCF
