Scotland teams may have completed their major championship schedule last month, but there was a last triumph for those that have trained at Stirling’s National Curling Academy (NCA) when Ukraine’s men claimed gold in the European Curling Championships C-Division.
The NCA has become something of a dream factory since it was opened in 2017, peaking last season when five major gold medals, including victory for the Team GB women’s team at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, were won by British Curling’s teams.
That success has been consolidated this season with successes at both the men’s World and European Championships for Team Mouat, for Team Henderson at the women’s World Junior Championships and for Team Craik at the World University Games. 
However, this week’s win for Ukraine represents a true bonus after the competitors from the war-ravaged country completed their preparations in Stirling ahead of travelling down the M74 to be among 18 teams contesting the European Championships C-Division in Dumfries.
While the men improved on last year’s second-placed finish to comprehensively defeat Liechtenstein 10-2 in the final, their women also made a marked improvement on last season’s seventh placed finish, when they just missed out on reaching the play-offs, winning five of their nine matches.
And women’s vice skip Diana Moskalenko explained how training at the state-of-the-art facilities in Stirling had given them a significant confidence boost ahead of the event.
“The National Curling Academy is an amazing place and a great opportunity to train for our competition and we are very happy to say we have trained in the same place as the Men’s World Championship winning team,” she said.
“We hope that we are making everyone back home very proud of what we are achieving here in Scotland.”
Curling’s values as a sport have been exemplified in the wider support offered to the Ukrainians with, for example, the World Curling Federation offering their administrators space in which to operate at their headquarters in Perth; the Swedish Curling Association providing appropriate playing uniforms since both nations play in yellow and blue; and suppliers such as Hardline and Balance Plus have provided equipment and shoes. 
In such challenging times, their team coach Erkki Lill also explained that they had to take a circuitous route to Dumfries.
“We have been preparing for the European C Championships in a number of different countries leading up to this point,” he said.
“We were in Tallinn for four months, Finland for five weeks and also in the USA in Salt Lake City for four months, before training in Scotland ahead of our Championships, which has given us a good opportunity to prepare for these championships.”
British Curling’s Executive Performance Director Nigel Holl said his organisation had been delighted to be able to contribute by offering the Ukrainians the ice they needed at a time of year when most ice rinks around Europe were closing down for the summer.
“We are very privileged to operate within facilities that are the envy of the world, so as soon as we were made aware that we could help the Ukrainian players get ready for their championships we considered it a privilege to do so,” he said.
“If the use of the NCA contributed in any way to the performance of their teams in Dumfries then it is all the more pleasing, but the most important thing has been that Ukrainian curling knows that so many around the world want to do what we can to offer our support.”
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