All’s quiet on the competition front Curlers biding their time waiting for events to be scheduled
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/09/2020 (1613 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Kerri Einarson hasn’t tossed a rock of any consequence since Feb. 23 and likely won’t until the new year, while Jason Gunnlaugson played two key games March 6 but none since and has an empty calendar until late November at the earliest.
The reigning Canadian women’s curling champion and provincial men’s champion are both resigned to a leisurely first half of the 2020-21 competitive season.
Several stops on the World Curling Tour as well as Grand Slam of Curling events and the Canada Cup — a marquee event of Curling Canada — have either been postponed or cancelled, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Manitoba-based teams could find a few bonspiels out east, but with mandatory provincial quarantining rules firmly in place and no end in sight, none is prepared to travel.
Einarson, who made her most recent crucial delivery count in Moose Jaw, Sask., drawing to the button to defeat Ontario’s Rachel Homan 8-7 in an extra end in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts final, is adamant her team is staying put.
“We are doing nothing right now, just a lot of going to the gym and making sure we’re staying healthy and staying in shape. Hopefully, we’ll be on the ice practising at the Granite the next week or so,” she said earlier this week. “It’s looking like our schedule will be wide open, just practising until the new year.
“With all these cases rising again, it’s just a little scary right now. Definitely, staying put is OK. There are no women’s bonspiels locally that we’ve heard of, either. They’ve all been cancelled.”
Einarson works at a long-term care facility in the Interlake community and wears personal protective equipment daily. The mom of young twin girls said curling takes a back seat to health and wellness.
“For sure, it sucks we aren’t going to be playing for awhile but everyone’s health and safety is more important. I know, for myself, working at Betel (Home Foundation), I can’t bring anything in here. So, for me to stay put for now is the best thing because I’d hate to bring something back and put everyone else’s health at risk,” she said.
A few weighty events to conclude the 2019-20 season had to be scrapped owing to the health crisis, including the world women’s championship in Prince George, B.C., in March. Einarson’s Gimli-based team, with third Val Sweeting (an import from Edmonton), second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meilleur, was already in Prince George when the championship was called off.
Einarson said Sweeting will continue to train on her own in Alberta.
Meanwhile, Gunnlaugson’s crew of Adam Casey (a P.E.I. import), new second Matt Wozniak and lead Connor Njegovan has a light schedule ahead. The Morris-based team is registered to compete in the southern community at the DEKALB SuperSpiel in late November but would do so without Casey, who would face a 14-day quarantine here and a self-isolate period when he returns home to Charlottetown.
Gunnlaugson isn’t certain the team will even bother.
“We do play with an import, so there’s that to consider. I really think it’s going to be quiet on the competition front. I don’t think there’s going to be too much happening,” said Gunnlauson, who represented the buffalo in Kingston, Ont., in early March. “It seems all the major arena events have been cancelled through 2020, so I think it might be a lot of training in clubs if they are able to remain open, lots of off-ice training and hope for maybe some practise games.
“We’ll be practising hard to try to set ourselves up for the spring season, but I really have no idea what that will look like. The virus is going to tell us what happens.”
Curling Canada has stated said it will continue to assess the status of post-Christmas events but is hoping to reschedule the Canada Cup — an Olympics Trials qualifying event — in the new year.
The 2020-21 curling season is critical as teams try to lock down berths and accumulate points to qualify for the Olympic Trials, but Curling Canada has been forced to rethink its entire qualification process and has placed things on hold.
Teams skipped by Einarson, Homan, John Epping of Ontario and 2020 Brier champion Brad Gushue have already qualified for the Roar of the Rings in Saskatoon, Sask., from Nov. 27 to Dec. 5, 2021. The pairings of former Winnipegger Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing, and Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant own berths in the mixed doubles trials Jan. 3-6, 2022, in a city yet to be named.
Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen is ranked fifth on the Canadian Team Ranking System, but like his fellow competitors won’t be racking up points this fall.
Bubble option?
Hosting as many as three major events consecutively in a competitive bubble in early 2021 might be the safest option for getting the country’s finest curling teams back on the ice together.
The tall foreheads of the sport in Canada are apparently looking at that scenario.
Curling Canada needs to reschedule the Canada Cup in the new year, and is also assessing the prospect of holding the 2021 Scotties national women’s championship in Thunder Bay, Ont., and the ’21 Brier Canadian men’s championship in Kelowna, B.C., during the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis.
Hosting as many as three major events consecutively in a competitive bubble in early 2021 might be the safest option for getting the country’s finest curling teams back on the pebbled ice together.
The tall foreheads of the sport in Canada are apparently looking at that scenario.
bCurling Canada needs to reschedule the Canada Cup in the new year, and is also assessing the prospect of holding the 2021 Scotties national women’s championship in Thunder Bay, Ont., and the ’21 Brier Canadian men’s championship in Kelowna, B.C., during the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis.:
The sports bubble model is being used by the NHL and NBA, and is giving North America’s pro athletes the best chance of having a successful, safe return to play.
Al Cameron, spokesman for Curling Canada, said that’s an option being considered in an effort to stage the premier events.
“(Events jointly in a hub city) is being considered. Committing to a format? We wouldn’t be able to do that at this stage, nor could we commit to any format or location. But the fact is that has been talked about and we view what’s taking place in other sports with a great deal of interest and learn from those things,” Cameron said. “That’s obviously on the table. How could it not be?
“To put it mildly, every vision is being encompassed. You have to take every possibility into account, with the primary motivation to keep everybody safe. Everything revolves around that, keeping athletes, officials, ice technicians safe. Once you mark all those boxes off, then you can start looking to logistical details of holding a championship.”
In early July, the sport’s governing body in Canada released its return-to-play guidelines, which include significant alterations to sweeping and player positioning on the sheet, all part of ensuring physical distancing, as well as the elimination of the traditional pre- and post-game handshakes.
The 29-page document covers topics on game play but also provides curling clubs with information on facility cleanliness, food and beverage plans, customer awareness, financial planning and insurance so they can make an informed decision about whether it’s even feasible to open their doors this fall.
Many curling clubs in Manitoba are delaying their season openings, depending on their location and situation
The attention has now turned to staging national events. While major sports leagues have adjusted to playing games in front of empty stadiums and arenas, it’s still unclear if competitors should prepare for more of a ‘made-for-TV’ feel to curling’s biggest events.
“The primary problem is we don’t know what we don’t know,” said Cameron. “There’s so much that could happen between now and the beginning of a Scotties in February that we just don’t know — from finding a vaccine to a second or third wave (of the virus) that takes over.”
— Bell
“(Curling Canada) is going to have a tough job because somehow they’re going to have to safely identify representatives to go to the Olympics, if they’re even running in China in 2022,” said McEwen’s third, Reid Carruthers.
The McEwen squad, with Derek Samagalski at second and Colin Hodgson at lead, is sticking close to home as well, playing in two or three local events.
“We’re like most teams, playing a limited schedule, keeping close to home. We have no plans on travelling in the next couple of months, that’s for sure,” said Carruthers. “To qualify for the Trials is a pretty extensive process and it’s going to have to change drastically now because a lot of events are being taken away. There’s going to have to be decisions made as to how they’re going to run a lot of big events in the next year or so.”
There’s uncertainty surrounding the staging of a 16-team Manitoba women’s championship (Jan. 19-24, East St. Paul) and a 32-team provincial men’s championship (Feb. 2-7, Selkirk).
Curl Manitoba executive director Craig Baker said he’s confident the events will get the green light.
“We believe it’s important to declare provincial champions, and we’ll do what we have to do to meet provincial health guidelines so we can have provincial champions,” he said.
However, the 2020 provincial mixed championship, set for the Thanksgiving weekend, was cancelled a few weeks ago. Curling Canada had already pulled the pin on the national mixed championship, set for early November in Canmore, Alta.
jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @WFPJasonBell
Jason Bell
Sports editor
Jason Bell wanted to be a lawyer when he was a kid. The movie The Paper Chase got him hooked on the idea of law school and, possibly, falling in love with someone exactly like Lindsay Wagner (before she went all bionic).
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