Boucherville, Que. – Team Northern Ontario’s Douglas Dean (6-2; Thunder Bay) finally captured his first national title at the 2025 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship in Boucherville, Que., Saturday afternoon.
Dean overpowered Team Québec #1’s Carl Marquis (6-2; Magog) 8-5 at Le club de Curling Boucherville for the second time in the tournament, after having been the only one to take down the home team powerhouse all week.
“To finally cross that finish line after capturing three silvers and to bring it home to Northern Ontario, we couldn’t be happier,” said Dean. “I’m super proud of my team; we struggled here and there, but nobody got down on each other, and nobody pointed fingers. We just worked through it, and that’s what’s important to me.”
Dean, joined on the ice by vice-skip Gino Sonego, second Rick Bell, lead Lola Graham, and coach Doug Gelmich, kept powering forward, winning the game with consistency and patience.
The game was evenly matched through eight ends, but Dean’s squad started pulling away in the fourth end when they put three points up on the scoreboard.
Marquis’ game looked promising in the fifth end, but Dean’s strong takeout game derailed Marquis’ plan and forced him to only lay one.
It looked like the game could turn in the start of the sixth end, with the Northern Ontarians struggling a bit with the ice that allowed Marquis’ team to set up camp in the house, but Dean quickly regained his composure and put another point up on the board.
However, the scoreboard did not tell the whole story. Although the seventh end finished with Dean stealing another point, Team Québec #1 entered the eighth with visible determination. After a few missed shots by Team Northern Ontario, Team Québec #1 was sitting a potential three before Dean lined up a perfect takeout to secure his win.
“Going out this year we thought, ‘If we make it to the final, we’re not going to settle for silver this time,’” said Dean, reflecting on his collection of silver medals. “‘We’re going to get the gold, and that’s what we did. We weren’t ever going to settle.”
Beside the Dean vs. Marquis battle, the bronze medal match got off to a hot start for Team British Columbia #1’s Rick Robinson (5-3; Richmond), quickly putting up four to finish off the third end. While Newfoundland and Labrador’s Dennis Thiessen (4-4; St. John’s) immediately countered with two points in the fourth end, the west-coast team hardly let up.
Robinson led his team to a bronze medal, finishing 7-5 over Thiessen, an improvement over the two teams’ faceoff earlier in the week that ended 8-3 in Thiessen’s favour.
Regardless of the outcome, Boucherville saw a great showing of national talent and even hosted some members of a youth curling club on Saturday.
The championship week ended with hope to grow the sport across the country and to different age groups.
The 2025 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship was co-hosted by Défi sportif AlterGo, Canada’s largest multisport event that hosts athletes with limitations for various sports around the area.
The 2026 event will return to Le club de curling de Boucherville from April 27 to May 3.
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