British Curling’s Pathway Manager-Olympic Nancy Smith will be Scotland’s head coach as they aim to repeat recent history by using the World Junior B Championships as a launch pad for greater glory in Finland next week.
Recently crowned national champions Callie Soutar, Eva Hare, Holly Clemie and Alison Hamilton make the trip aiming to emulate the achievement of compatriots Team Henderson who won this event in 2022 before going on to win the 2023 World Junior Championship later in the same season. 
A top three finish would be sufficient to earn them a place among the 10 nations that will contest World Junior Women’s Championship in Cortina, Italy in April and Smith, who will be working alongside their team coach, 2002 Winter Olympic gold medallist Janice Rankin, believes the Forfar-based quartet has demonstrated that they have the potential to do so.
“In what was a highly competitive Scottish Junior Championships just last month, Team Soutar put in an exceptional performance to claim the title and they have continued to work hard to build on what they did there,” said Smith.
“Skip Callie has already shown what she can do on a global stage this season when she and Ethan Brewster claimed Team GB’s first ever mixed doubles medal when they won gold at the Winter Youth Olympics earlier this year, so we can be fully confident in her ability to produce the key shots under pressure.”
The women’s event at the World Junior B Championships takes place from December 15 to 19 in Lohja’s Kisakallio Sports Institute with 21 teams taking part.
Those teams have been drawn into pools of seven, with the Scots facing Australia, Brazil, Denmark, England, Finland and Turkiye in that round-robin stage with the eight best performing teams across the three pools qualifying for the quarter-finals and the chance to secure a medal, along with a place for their country at the World Juniors.
Team Soutar will be joined by Cara Davidson as their fifth player.
Team Soutar
Callie Soutar
Eva Hare
Holly Clemie
Alison Hamilton
Cara Davidson (alternate)
Team Coach Janice Rankin
Head Coach Nancy Smith
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