CANADA STARTS WITH A WIN AT WORLD JR. MIXED DOUBLES

Canada’s latest quest for a gold medal got underway Tuesday at the Booster Juice World Junior Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Edmonton. 

Brooklyn Ideson and Owen Henry, playing out of Ilderton, Ont., took on England’s Chloe McNaughton and Matthew Waring in their first game of the competition. When the dust settled at the Saville Community Sports Centre, the Canadians took the victory with a lopsided final score of 10-1. 

“⁠It was an awesome feeling to be out there and get a win to start the week,” said Henry, who put the game away with a precise triple takeout in the sixth end. “The conditions are always great here at the Saville and this week is no different. Good throws are rewarded and bad throws are punished which is exactly what you want at a world championship.” 

Canada opened with a steal of two, before forcing England to a single in the second end. That would be the only score for the Brits, as Canada added two more in third, and then stole 1, 2, and 3 in the next three ends. England conceded the win after the sixth end. 

“It only took a couple of practice slides for us to remember that even though we are here at worlds wearing the maple leaf, curling is still curling,” said Ideson. “With our experienced coaching staff and really amazing community of people who have helped us feel ready for this week, we haven’t really come across situations we hadn’t prepared for or discussed.” 

The coaching staff in question includes two-time Paralympic gold-medallist Mark Ideson, and 2018 Mixed Doubles Canadian champion Laura Walker. 

The 32-team event got underway Tuesday with round-robin play in groups of eight teams. The top eight teams will advance to quarterfinals on, beginning on Saturday. In Canada’s Group D, Germany and New Zealand also opened the tournament with wins. 

“⁠⁠Seeing all different flags and knowing that we are the ones representing Canada will never get old I don’t think,” said Henry. 

“It’s pretty amazing to be surrounded by all of those countries,” said Ideson. “To hear Canada announced before the game and knowing they’re talking about us… it still feels crazy.” 

Canada will continue pool play tomorrow with a game vs. Sweden at 9:00 am local (MT), followed by another vs. Germany at 4:00 pm MT. 

In other tournament news, World Curling announced today that the Russian entry would not be able to compete due to delays in their visa application process. Shortly after that was announced, the Nigerian team was forced to withdraw due to a personal issue. As per World Curling rules, the schedule was re-done to make the competition format as fair as possible. 

As a result, Canada’s pool has dropped to seven teams and will only require a six-game round robin. 

For scores and schedules, visit https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wjmdcc/default . For streaming, go to Youtube and find Curling Stadium Edmonton.