WINNIPEG — With six-time Manitoba champion Jennifer Jones and her team focused on Olympic gold, many expect this could be the breakthrough year for Chelsea Carey and her Fort Rouge curling rink to finally come out on top at the provincial Scotties.
While 15 other teams from across the province will head to Virden next week, the Jones team is concentrating its efforts on next month’s Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Carey, who has qualified for the playoff round in four of the last five years and lost two finals, has been seeded No. 1 and will head the Black Group while two-time Manitoba champion Barb Spencer of Assiniboine will lead the Red Group as 2nd seed.
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Michelle Montford, Darcy Robertson, Kerri Einarson and Janet Harvey round out the top six.
Even with the absence of the Jones team, Carey said she and her team of Kristy McDonald, Kristen Foster and Lindsay Titheridge are not adding to the weight of expectations on themselves by saying they have to win it this year.
“I don’t think you can ever feel like that,” said Carey. “If you start to feel like that, you put too much pressure on yourself that way, and you can’t expect to win then. You just have to go out and make some shots and hope you come out on top at the end of the week.”
The Manitoba Scotties takes place from Jan. 8-12 at the Tundra Oil and Gas Place in Virde,n with the championship team representing the province at the Canadian Scotties beginning Feb. 1 in Montreal.
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