Gushue destroys Ramsfjell of Norway 7-1 to start the Canadian Open.

Gushue destroys Ramsfjell of Norway 7-1 to start the Canadian Open…

Brad Gushue of St. John’s defeated Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway 7-1 on Tuesday in Red Deer, Alberta, to start the Grand Slam of Curling’s Co-op Canadian Open.

Gushue finished the round-robin win with four goals 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.

WATCH: Gushue wins the Pan Continental Curling Championship with a solid defence:

About two months ago, at the Pan Continental Curling Championships, Brad Gushue led Canada to its second consecutive championship.
Two minutes and three seconds
Brad Gushue of Canada wins the gold medal match at the Pan Continental Curling Championships in Kelowna, British Columbia, defeating Park Jong-duk of South Korea 8-3.
Later in the day, Servus Arena has three additional draws planned.

The competition is open until Sunday.

Selena Sturmay from Edmonton was a late addition.
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.”
Gushue defeats South Korea to reclaim her title as Pan Continental curling champion.
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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 unexpected inclusion in the Grand Slam field, Sturmay has the chance to gain significant ranking points that could tip the odds in her favour.

Kaitlyn Lawes came in fourth.
Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg had 163.875 points, good for fourth place going into this week’s competition. Danielle Inglis of Ottawa (126.625) finished fifth, just ahead of Sturmay (125.625).

Closely trailing 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 stated.

The Grand Slam series, a five-event circuit that Sportsnet has owned since 2012, reported that it has not experienced a team withdrawal this close to the start 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 spokesperson for Sportsnet stated in an email.

“Edmonton’s Team Sturmay, ranked 26th in the world at the cutoff date, received and accepted the invitation.”
In February, Nunavut will not field a team for the Canadian women’s curling championship.
Curling Canada has named Nolan Thiessen as its new CEO.
Along with the winner of the most recent Grand Slam Tier 2 event, the men’s and women’s fields at the Canadian Open each include 15 team entries determined by world 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 who may be considered as wild-card entries for the Canadian championships frequently enter bonspiels ahead of provincial or territorial championships in order to gain points.

Every point is valuable as teams attempt to boost their ranking in case they don’t win their playdowns.

It wasn’t immediately clear why organizers invited Sturmay over other teams that were positioned higher on the Dec. 18 ranking list.

Among international teams, Switzerland’s Xenia Schwaller was ahead in both year-to-date rankings and overall rankings (top six events this season plus 37.5 per cent of last season’s points). South Korea’s Seungyeon Ha and Japanese teams skipped by Ikue Kitazawa and Sayaka Yoshimura also had stronger overall rankings.

Travel issues
For domestic teams, Inglis, Brown, Christina Black of Halifax and Vancouver’s Clancy Grandy were ranked higher overall but Sturmay had the edge in the year-to-date list.

Travel issues and/or timing of provincial championships may have been concerns for potential invitees. Sturmay is entered in the Alberta playdowns starting Jan. 24.

A message left with Sportsnet requesting clarification on team selection wasn’t immediately returned.

All provincial and territorial championships will conclude by Jan. 28. Curling Canada is expected to confirm the full field for the Hearts shortly thereafter.

The national organization is no longer using wild-card designations for non-champion entries. Instead the province and skip surname will be used, a Curling Canada spokesman said in an email.

Tuesday results: Draw 1: Brad Gushue defeated Magnus Ramsfjell 7-1; Brendan Bottcher edged Mike McEwen 7-6; Ross Whyte edged Reid Carruthers 6-5; and Yannick Schwaller defeated Michael Brunner 8-1.

Draw 2: Anna Hasselborg edged Eunjung Kim 5-4; Rachel Homan beat Chelsea Carey (Team Cameron) 6-3; Eun Ji Gim tripped Delaney Strouse 8-2; Isabella Wrana downed Kaitlyn Lawes 6-3.

Draw 3: Kevin Koe defeated Niklas Edin 7-4; Matt Dunstone beat Korey Dropkin 8-2; Bruce Mouat rocked Daniel Casper 10-3; and James Craik edged Joel Retornaz 5-4.

Draw 4 (8:30 p.m. ET): Jennifer Jones vs. Selena Sturmay; Rebecca Morrison vs. Silvana Tirinzoni; Tabitha Peterson vs. Satsuki Fujisawa; Jolene Campbell vs. Kerri Einarson.