Many of the best curlers from all over the world are in London for the next five days for the 2018 World Financial Group Continental Cup.
The event is being held at the Sports Centre at Western Fair District and all but two of the teams taking part will be headed to Pyongchang in less than a month to participate in the winter Olympics. One of the two rinks not heading to South Korea just happens to be Brad Gushue’s foursome who went undefeated in claiming last year’s World Championship.
The event runs much like a Ryder Cup of golf in that the curlers are divided up into Team North America and Team World, and go through various formats over the course of four days, earning points at the conclusion of each one.
Londoner Peter Inch is the chair of Curling Canada’s board of governors and says that will create some tremendous strategy sessions for the coaches and team captains David Murdoch and Fredrik Lindberg on the World side, and Al Hackner and Rick Lang on the North American side.
The first draw happens at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning and it will feature men’s and women’s team competitions. At 2:30 p.m., Team North America and Team World square off in mixed doubles and then the evening draw at 7 p.m. will see more team competition. There is even a skins format set for Sunday’s draws.
The Continental Cup of Curling was first held in Regina, Sask., in 2002, and has spent the past two years in Las Vegas, Nev., where it resumed its North America vs. World format after one year of Canada vs. Europe.
Inch has no reservations about competing with the bright lights that Sin City brought to the competition.
“We have a casino,” he smiles. “We’re just a little Vegas… we are going to be loud and they will know that London, Ont., is a place that they should bring all curling events to.”
The big names of the sport can be found humbly walking the halls, filling their own water bottles. Along with Gushue, Rachel Homan, Kevin Koe and Michelle Englot’s Canadian rinks are taking part.
The World team features names like Anna Hasselborg of Sweden and Thomas Ulsrud of Norway.
There is also a rink from Brazil. Sergio Mitsuo Vilela says it is made up of Brazilian nationals who have to co-ordinated practice times carefully. Mitsuo Vilela lives in Switzerland, two team members live in Quebec, one is in British Columbia and a fifth actually happens to reside in Brazil, although he is Canadian-born.
Despite the scarcity of ice, he admits the sport is really growing in the Americas.
“In the beginning, it was only us challenging everyone else. Now you have Mexico. Probably next year, we could have Argentina or Chile. So, we will reach a point where we will have an Americas championship. That’s our hope.”
And that is only one of the stories that will play out before the end of Sunday when a champion will be crowned.
For event information, visit http://www.curling.ca/2018continentalcup/