SCA ATHLETES REFLECT ON WORLD MIXED CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP
A young Scotland team of Jack Strawhorn, Amy Mitchell, Kaleb Johnston, and Kirsty Gallacher took on the 2023 World Mixed Curling Championship on home ice at Curl Aberdeen. Despite a good outing overall, some unlucky moments here and there meant they missed out on the play-off. Still, the athletes, three of them making their Scotland debut, collected valuable experiences and did their country proud.
A detailed run-down of all Scotland games is available here.
Team skip Jack summarised the tournament saying that: ‘Overall, it’s been a good week. There’s been a couple of ups and downs, but we finished better in the end than how we started.’
His team-mate, both at the World Mixed and during the regular season, Kaleb added: ‘We’re definitely disappointed not to have qualified for the play-offs, I think that was definitely an achievable goal at the start of the week. A couple of slack performances has cost us that opportunity.
‘But I’m definitely still very proud of the team and really happy with our performance overall. It’s our first Worlds for three of us, so that gives us a lot of confidence having played in a very experienced field here.’
After a tough start to the championship, Team Scotland stayed composed and motivated to win two of their last three games and finish the tournament on a high.
‘I enjoyed it; first time representing Scotland and it’s quite a social competition,’ said Kirsty. ‘Made some shots, missed some shots; bish, bash, bosh.’
The only member of the team to have previously sported the Saltire, Amy reflected: ‘I think we had a good time. Especially with three of the team playing their first world championship here, I think we had a good run at it.’
With three of the Scotland curlers being current Scottish Curling Academy athletes, it was fitting that SCA Manager Scott Andrews travelled with the team as their coach for the championship. ‘It’s been a good week. I think we’ve all learned from the experience of a world championship,’ he said.
‘It’s been a great honour to coach the team. Hopefully, I’ve been able to give them some advice, they’ll take some learnings from this and they’ll go into the Scottish Juniors in a few weeks’ time with a lot of confidence because they certainly built on their performances over the course of the week.
‘I’m really proud of how they conducted themselves out on the ice and they’re definitely ones to watch for the future.’
