This weekend, more than 175 young curlers from across Canada will descend on the Nutana Club in Saskatoon for this year’s edition of the Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships.
Forty-two teams, with representatives from every province and territory, will compete in the week-long event, beginning Sunday, February 16. Two national championship teams – one male, one female – will be crowned the following Saturday (February 22), with the finals taking place at 12:30 pm CT and 3:30 pm CT respectively.
“We are thrilled to have representation from every Member Association,” said Helen Radford, Curling Canada’s Manager of NextGen Programs. “We know all the curlers will enjoy the competition, meet lots of new people and leave making lifelong friends.
Last year’s championship, held in Ottawa, saw Newfoundland & Labrador (skipped by Simon Perry) and Manitoba (skipped by Shaela Hayward) take home the two titles.
Neither skip is in the competition this year, so a new winner is guaranteed.
At this championship, 21 teams from each gender will be divided into pools of seven. They’ll play a six-game round robin, with the top four from each pool advancing to a championship bracket. At that point, the 12 advancing teams will be seeded based on record, with the top four gaining a bye to the quarterfinals. The next eight teams will need to play one game to reach that round.
For the pool teams that don’t advance to the championship round, there will be two more “ranking” games, which will help determine the seeding at next year’s event.
“The Under-18 Nationals are an amazing opportunity for our top young curlers to compete against their peers from all across Canada,” said Radford. “For young curlers, once they have experienced a week of great competition and fun, it motivates them to work hard to get back to the national stage.”
Seven games will be played at a time at the Nutana Curling Club, with streaming for 21 draws on all sheets. Sheet A games will be the featured broadcast. Those games can be found at http://youtube.com/@curlingcanadavideo beginning with Sunday’s 12:30 pm draw.
For scores and schedules, visit http://curling.ca/scoreboard
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For further information:
Al Cameron
Director, Communication & Media Relations
Curling Canada
(403) 463-5500
acameron@curling.ca
Kyle Jahns
Manager, Communication and Media Relations
Curling Canada
Tel: 204-803-8221
kyle.jahns@curling.ca
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