 New discipline offered by Curling Canada targetted to give youth teams more opportunities for funding and exposure. Dylan Niepage of Guelph, Ont., with Gavin Lydiate at third, Jayden King at second and Daniel Del Conte won 6-2 over Nicholas Lemieux of St. Catherines, Ont., to win the men's event, taking home the $1,500 first prize cheque. Lemieux was joined by Ryan Fayaz at third, Charlie Randell at second and Dylan Sipura at lead. Niepage, by way of their undefeated record going into the final, starting with hammer and blanked the first end. They got on the scoreboard with two in the second end, then blowing the game open with a steal of three in the third end. In an all-Sudbury affair, Isabelle Ladouceur and her team of Jamie Smith, Lauren Rajala and Katie Shaw defeated Abby Deschene 8-1 to capture the women's championship. Deschene was supported by Britney Malette, Mya Smith and Zoe Valliere in the 10-team event. After trading singles in the first two end, Ladouceur scored three in the third end, then added steals of two in the fourth and fifth ends to finish the weekend undefeated, claming the $1,500 first prize cheque. Ladouceur advanced to the final with a 6-3 semifinal win over Maddy Warriner (Dundas, Ont.), while Deschene defeated Thea Coburn (Toronto) 8-5 to reach the final. In the quarterfinals, Warriner won 5-2 over Kaitlin Jewer (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.) and Coburn defeated Emily Deschenes (Greely, Ont.) 6-5. Niepage defeated Sam Steep (Seaforth, Ont.) 9-1 in the men's semifinals, while Lemieux won 6-5 over Carter Bryant (London, Ont.) to advance to the championship game. Announced last winter by Curling Canada, the program's goals will allow youth teams to compete and gain experience against their peers without facing the game's top teams right away. Under-25 events will receive World Curling Federation World Team Rankings (WTR) and Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) points once the ranking system opens in September. "This is a significant step forward in the development of young Canadian curling teams," said event organizer Gerry Geurts. "Teams graduating out of juniors face many hurdles in the game today that didn't exist in the past, and with the resources required for these teams to compete against established teams makes it prohibitive for most athletes." Starting in 2022, an annual Under-25 Invitational event will be held in September. The winning men's, women's and mixed doubles teams will be join Curling Canada's NextGen Program for that upcoming season. "We know it's a difficult stage when they're in university or starting a career, early on," Helen Radford, Curling Canada's Youth and NextGen Manager said in an earlier interview with Global Saskatoon. "So, we're happy to be able to provide something for them." A team's cumulative athlete ages must be 96 years or less for four-person teams and 48 years or less for mixed doubles teams, calculated on June 30th ahead of each season. Teams will qualify based on the Canadian Team Ranking System/Canadian Mixed Doubles Rankings standings from the previous year. Related Links: Global: Curling Canada hits the button with new youth, nextgen events Curling Canada: Youth Plans for Next Season: |
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Brendan Bottcher (photo: Stan Fong) is moving on from now former teammates Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert, announced Tuesday.
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In the run up to Christmas Day, 1893, the Aberdeen Peoples's Journal offered a prize of one guinea for the best letter about curling! That's the invitation... (read more) -
A quick break for the Memorial Day holiday and we're back with our guest and new USA Curling Womenâs National Team & Juniors Director Jessica Schultz.... (read more) -
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On today's World Curling Report...we recap Day 1 of the 2019 Canada Cup. (read more) -
On this week's podcast we focus on the Canada Cup with past champion Reid Carruthers (04:09), Adam Kingsbury - former coach of Team Homan and Team Jacobs (11:53)... (read more)