Leduc to host 2018 U SPORTS/Curling Canada Curling Championships

U SPORTS – TORONTO (U SPORTS) – U SPORTS and Curling Canada announced Thursday that the 2018 U SPORTS/Curling Canada Curling Championships will be held in Leduc, Alta., hosted by the Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas.

The U SPORTS national championship, set for Mar.24-28, 2018, will be one of four curling events held next year at the Leduc Recreation Centre just outside of Edmonton, in addition to the 2018 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) national championship, the 2018 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship and the 2018 Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship.

“U SPORTS is very pleased to continue its commitment to university curling in Canada. Partnering with Curling Canada and one of our sport partners, the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association, as well as the University of Alberta and the University of Alberta-Augustana, will raise the bar by providing university athletes with the opportunity to compete on stadium ice,” said Graham Brown, CEO of U SPORTS.  “One of our goals for university sport in Canada is to build relationships with our sport partners and universities to enhance the student-athlete experiences at U SPORTS national championships. Providing a curling festival concept in a curling community like Leduc does just that.”

It will be the 11th staging of the U SPORTS/Curling Canada Curling Championships and the second time hosted by the University of Alberta, after the Golden Bears and Pandas welcomed Canada’s best university curlers to the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton in 2010.  

The Memorial Sea-Hawks (men) and Laurentian Voyageurs (women) won gold at the 2017 U SPORTS/Curling Canada Curling Championships on Mar. 22 at the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay, Ont. The Sea-Hawks captured their second national curling banner and first since 2011, while the Voyageurs were crowned U SPORTS curling champions for the first time in program history.

“The Leduc curling community is in for an absolute treat as these four national championships present a wide spectrum of curling at its highest level,” said Peter Inch, Chair of Curling Canada’s Board of Governors. “It’ll be a wonderful opportunity for curling fans in Leduc and the Greater Edmonton area to embrace four events at once, and we know that based on past events in Leduc that the visiting athletes, officials and fans will go home with smiles on their faces.”

The winners of the 2018 U SPORTS/Curling Canada Curling Championships will earn the right to represent the red and white at the 2019 Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Last month, Alberta’s Kelsey Rocque and Wilfrid Laurier’s Aaron squires competed at the 2017 FISU Games in Almaty, Kazakhstan following their victories at the 2016 U SPORTS Championships, with Rocque’s rink earning Canada’s lone gold medal of the competition.

About U SPORTS

U SPORTS is the national brand for University Sports in Canada. Every year, over 12,000 student-athletes and 500 coaches from 56 universities vie for 21 national  championships in 12 different sports. U SPORTS also provides higher performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit usports.ca or follow us on:

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-U SPORTS –

For further information, please contact:

Ken Saint-Eloy
Manager, Communications
U SPORTS
Cell: 647-871-7595
ksainteloy@usports.ca 

Alan Hudes 
Coordinator, Communications
U SPORTS
Off: 905-508-3000 ext. 242
Cell: 647-991-5343
ahudes@usports.ca

Al Cameron
Director, Communication & Media Relations
Curling Canada
Tel: 403-463-5500
acameron@curling.ca