Manitoba curlers make triumphant return after world juniors

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This article was published 24/02/2020 (1803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was an over-30-hour journey to return to Winnipeg, but knowing what was waiting for them back home, no one was complaining.

The hug rug at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport was surrounded by friends and family decked out in red and white who were proudly holding up signs congratulating two local teams on becoming world champions.

On Saturday in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, Winnipeg’s Jacques Gauthier and Altona’s Mackenzie Zacharias skipped their teams to men’s and women’s world junior gold medals. It’s the first time two Manitoba teams have won the world juniors in the same year.

Both squads, who were wearing their Team Canada uniforms and had their medals proudly hanging around their necks, landed minutes after midnight on Sunday and came down the escalator to the sound of a piper playing behind them. Dozens of supporters were in attendance to greet the world champions.

“It’s surreal,” said Gauthier, who was greeted with a bear hug from his mom Cathy seconds after getting off the escalator. “We’re all really, really spoiled now because we got to do it twice in a month and we may never get to do it again. It’s breathtaking. It’s midnight on a Sunday and people are still here showing support. It kind of validates how significant it really is.”

Zacharias also described the moment as “surreal.”

“It’s just incredible coming down and seeing everyone here at midnight. It’s incredible that they came out, especially my family from Altona. That’s like an hour away,” said Zacharias, whose younger sister Emily plays second and their dad Sheldon is their team’s coach.

“The support all week has been incredible and today as well.”

One of the many Zacharias family members that made the late-night trek was auntie Sandra Klassen. She said the family had a watch party at the Altona Curling Club on Saturday night with roughly 50 people. Klassen said it’s an amazing feeling to see her nieces get rewarded for all their hard work over the years.

“They sure spent a lot of time curling when they were young and missed family gatherings. We always thought ‘Wow, they’re missing another gathering.’ But really, that brought them to where they are now. We’re really proud of them,” Klassen said.

Helping the Zacharias sisters win gold was third Karlee Burgess, a Nova Scotia native who is now a three-time world junior champ and lead Lauren Lenentine of P.E.I., a two-time world juniors winner. The Zacharias rink was 7-2 in the round-robin, beat Russia in a 9-8 nailbiter in the semifinal and then knocked off an undefeated South Korea team 7-5 in the final.

“When we put this team together at the end of summer, we knew we could be good if we worked really hard and we did work really hard,” said Zacharias. “We practised a lot, we trained a lot and we all had the same goal in mind and we were able to achieve it this year. It’s super special.”

As for Gauthier, winning worlds wasn’t thought of as a realistic goal coming into the year. Gauthier had won junior provincials the past three years as a third for skip JT Ryan but the two were forced to go their separate ways this season as Ryan had aged out and moved on to play on the men’s circuit. Gauthier was forced to step up a skip his own team.

The only other returning player from last year’s team was Jordan Peters who got bumped up to third on the Gauthier rink. The two brought in Brandon’s Brayden Payette at second and Zack Bilawka as the team’s lead.

The team lost the provincial final to Brett Walter, but due to Nunavut and the Yukon being unable to field teams for last month’s junior nationals in Langley, B.C., Manitoba was able to send a second team. Gauthier took full advantage of the opportunity and only lost once. In Russia, Gauthier went 7-2 in the round-robin and beat Germany 7-4 in the semifinal before handing Switzerland a 7-2 defeat to claim the gold medal.

So, how would’ve Gauthier reacted if someone told him his new-look squad would end the year as the best junior men’s curling team in the world?

“I would’ve told you you’re nuts. Even midway through the season, we definitely had our growing pains. All four of us came into the season playing different positions than we had last year,” said Gauthier.

“We didn’t have the results we were looking for. Even at the junior level, we were getting smashed around a bit, actually. We were not having a good season. I think the biggest turning point was (a superspiel) in Ottawa (in October). It was a national calibre event. It was invitation only and we were excited to put ourselves against the country’s best and we didn’t qualify. We weren’t even that close to qualifying.

“So, we kind of had a sit down on our day off and talked about why that was and what we could do better. You could just feel it kind of turning and it changed the tide. After that, I thought we grew every weekend as a team and peaked at the right time.”

Cathy, who works as a curling commentator for TSN, was in Moose Jaw, Sask., for the Scotties Tournaments of Hearts while Gauthier was making a name for himself in Russia. Cathy, as well her 23-year-old daughter Gaetanne who was interning for TSN this week, were forced to keep up to date with the world junior finals on an iPad while on the job.

“As the game was going on, everyone in the TSN truck was watching and cheering and we had a little Canada flag waving,” Gaetanne said. “We got back to the hotel room for the last end and we just cried. It was so exciting.”

A weekend which will go down in Manitoba curling history was capped off perfectly hours before Gauthier and Zacharias had landed. Gimli’s Kerri Einarson beat Rachel Homan 8-7 in an extra end thriller to win the Scotties. Cathy, a three-time Scotties champion herself, said the accomplishments made by these three teams says a lot about the local curling scene.

“It means a ton. What it says is the future isn’t as bleak as a lot of people thought it was,” Cathy said.

“I think it shows that there’s so much depth in this province. If you have to play really good teams all the time, you get to the national field and you’re more prepared than a lot of provinces and territories who can win easily, but they’re not as prepared. I think the future looks wonderful.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31