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Curling Canada – Canada’s best curling teams will be converging on Brandon, Man., chasing big money and even bigger Olympic dreams.

The 2016 Home Hardware Canada Cup, presented by Meridian Manufacturing, kicking off Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, is scheduled for Nov. 30-Dec. 4 at Westman Communications Group Place in the Keystone Centre.

The top seven men’s and top seven women’s teams in the country will be in attendance, and it’s small wonder why — there’s a $14,000 winner’s cheque in addition to $2,000 for each round-robin win, not to mention to a trip to Las Vegas in January to be a part of Team North America at the 2017 World Financial Group Continental Cup, Jan. 12-15.

But the biggest prizes of all are the berths into the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials in Ottawa that go to the men’s and women’s champions in Brandon. The Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings will decide Canada’s four-player curling teams for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

For media requiring credentials for the Home Hardware Canada Cup, please apply on-line at www.curling.ca/championships/media-accreditation-request-form by no later than Nov. 23. 

There is a heavy Manitoba flavour to the 2016 Home Hardware Canada Cup, with two men’s teams (skipped 2014 Home Hardware Canada Cup champ Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen and Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers) and two women’s teams (skipped by 2014 Olympic gold-medallist Jennifer Jones  and 2016 Manitoba champ Kerri Einarson of Winnipeg), as well as former Winnipeger Chelsea Carey skipping the reigning Scotties Tournament of Hearts champs from Calgary.

The rest of the men’s field is headed by current Tim Hortons Brier and World Men’s champ Kevin Koe of Calgary (who also won the 2015 Home Hardware Canada Cup); also headed to Brandon are 2014 Olympic gold-medallist Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.; 2006 Olympic champ Brad Gushue of St. John’s, Steve Laycock of Saskatoon; and John Epping of Toronto.

On the women’s side, Ottawa’s Rachel Homan is back to defend the Home Hardware Canada Cup title she won a year ago in Grande Prairie, Alta.; also in the women’s field are Edmonton’s Val Sweeting (the 2014 Home Hardware Canada Cup champ), Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque and Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont.

The teams qualified for the Home Hardware Canada Cup by either winning last season’s Tim Hortons Brier/Scotties Tournament of Hearts, or by their standing on the 2015-16 Canadian Team Ranking System.

The teams will play a round robin schedule, beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 30, with the top three in each gender qualifying for the playoffs. The first-place teams advance directly to their respective finals on Sunday, while the second- and third-place teams meet in semifinals to determine the other finalists. All draws will be televised on TSN or TSN2, along with RDS2 in French. The women’s final goes at 2 p.m. CST/3 p.m. EST, while the men’s final will be played at 7 p.m. CST/8 p.m. EST on Dec. 4.

This will be the 13th edition of the Home Hardware Canada Cup, which began in Kamloops, B.C., in 2003.

Team lineups, the draw schedule and other event information about the Home Hardware Canada Cup are available at www.curling.ca/2016canadacup/.

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For further information:

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