Brad Gushue of Canada wins the first match of the Canadian Open against Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway.
Brad Gushue of Canada defeated Magnu s Ramsfjell of Norway 7-1 to start the Grand Slam of Curling’s Co-op Canadian Open on Tuesday.
Gushue, a native of St. John’s, Newfoundland, sealed the round-robin victory with four points in the sixth end.
Scotland’s Ross Whyte defeated Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 6-5, while Calgary’s Brendan Bottcher defeated Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 7-6.
In an all-Switzerland match, Yannick Schwaller defeated Michael Brunner 8-1 with only five ends remaining.
Later in the day, Servus Arena has three additional draws planned.
The competition is open until Sunday.
READ MORE……..
Selena Sturmay of Edmonton was a late addition to the Canadian Open roster.
In an incident that might affect the rankings for the final entry in the national women’s curling championship, Selena Sturmay of Canada has filled a last-minute gap in the Co-op Canadian Open lineup by accepting an offer to compete in the Grand Slam tournament.
Selena Sturmay of Canada has filled a last-minute spot in the Co-op Canadian Open field by accepting an offer to compete in the Grand Slam competition. This move may have an effect on the rankings for the remaining spots in the national women’s curling tournament.
In the 16-team women’s field at the Grand Slam of Curling in Red Deer, Alberta, Sturmay took Stefania Constantini of Italy’s position. For medical concerns, Constantini’s squad withdrew on Sunday, according to the organisers.
The Edmonton native Sturmay was supposed to play Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg on Tuesday night on her Tier 1 Grand Slam debut.
“It was definitely a goal of ours to make it into the Slams at some point throughout this season, if not next season,” Sturmay said on Tuesday. “It is regrettable that Team Constantini is ill. That, in my opinion, is never how you should really apply for a slam invitation.
“But at the end of the day, we’re happy to have this opportunity.”
Servus Arena will also host a men’s tournament with sixteen teams. The competition is open until Sunday.
Among the five women’s teams divided by less than 10 points in the national standings that will decide the last two spots for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts is Sturmay.
Rachel Homan, Jones, and Kerri Einarson of Camp Morton, Manitoba, who placed first through third in Ottawa, are already guaranteed spots in the playdowns in Calgary from February 16–25.
While Homan and Jones had qualified in advance, Einarson is the reigning champion. Most of the 18 teams in the field will be champions from the next provincial and territorial playdowns.
Normally, the top-ranked club that loses playdowns gets the final slot. But Nunavut’s sudden departure has opened up a second slot, tightening an already close competition.
Due to her surprising participation in the Grand Slam competition, Sturmay has the chance to gain significant ranking points that might swing the odds in her favour.
Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg has 163.875 points, enough for fourth place going into this week’s competition. Danielle Inglis of Ottawa (126.625) finished sixth, just ahead of Sturmay (125.625).
Closely behind in seventh place was Corryn Brown (121.625) of Kamloops, British Columbia, who was just ahead of Winnipeg’s Kate Cameron (118.250) and Jolene Campbell (117.313) at No. 8 and Serena Gray-Withers (108.563) at No. 10 from Edmonton.
In the Canadian Open are Sturmay, Lawes, Campbell, and Cameron, with Chelsea Carey filling in at skip.
“To do well in this bonspiel would be huge and give us an extra safety net,” Sturmay said.
The Grand Slam series, a five-event circuit that Sportsnet has controlled since 2012, said that it has not had a team withdrawal this close to the commencement of an event since the series’ inception.
“Due to the last-minute nature of this development, the Grand Slam of Curling made the decision to invite the highest-ranked Alberta-based women’s team as of the December 18 qualification deadline,” a spokesman for Sportsnet said in an email.
“Edmonton’s Team Sturmay, ranked 26th in the world at the cutoff date, received and accepted the invitation.”
Along with the winner of the most recent Grand Slam Tier 2 tournament, the men’s and women’s fields of the Canadian Open each include 15 team entries determined by global rankings. On a four-draw opening day, Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., and Brendan Bottcher of Calgary prevailed in their morning round-robin matches.
Teams that may be considered as wild-card entry for the Canadian championships sometimes participate bonspiels before of provincial or territory championships in order to gain points.
In the event that a team loses its playdown, every point counts towards improving their position.
Reasons for the invitation to Sturmay over other teams ranked higher on the Dec. 18 ranking list were not immediately apparent.
Xenia Schwaller of Switzerland led all foreign teams in both the year-to-date and overall standings (top six events this season plus 37.5% of points from the previous season). Seungyeon Ha of South Korea and the Japanese squads skipped by Sayaka Yoshimura and Ikue Kitazawa both had higher total ranks.
Among the domestic teams, Sturmay was ahead of Inglis, Brown, Christina Black of Halifax, and Clancy Grandy of Vancouver in terms of total ranking.
Travel concerns and/or the provincial championships’ schedule could have worried prospective invitees. From January 24, Sturmay is eligible to compete in the Alberta playdowns.
It took a while for Sportsnet to respond to a mail asking for clarity on the team selection.
By January 28, all provincial and territory championships will have come to an end. Soon after, Curling Canada is anticipated to announce the Hearts’ entire field.
Wild-card designations for non-champion entrants are no longer used by the national organisation. An email from a Curling Canada representative said that the province and skip surname would be used in its place.
The Canadian Press first released this article on January 16, 2024.
On X, follow @GregoryStrongCP.
The Canadian Press’s Gregory Strong
Leave a Reply