Scotland forced to withdraw from 2022 World Women’s Curling Championship following positive COVID tests
Team Scotland has had to withdraw from the BKT Tires & OK Tire World Women’s Curling Championship in Prince George, Canada after two further members of the team tested positive for COVID.
(Image: WCF/Jeffrey Au)
Scotland had been fielding a three-member team since the event got underway yesterday (March 19), after skip Rebecca Morrison and alternate Fay Henderson had tested positive ahead of the event and further daily testing has now resulted in two more positive cases. It has been agreed with the organisers that Team Scotland will not take part in any further matches in order to protect the safety of our athletes, our staff, all other competitors and those involved in the event, as well as to maintain the integrity of the 2022 World Championship.
All team members are being fully supported at this time and we would like to extend our particular thanks to Beth Farmer, who due to unforeseen circumstances, will now not be able to take part in the Championship, having travelled to Canada at short notice while the event was already underway in a bid to help Scotland compete. Arrangements are currently underway to organise the team’s return to Scotland as soon as it is safe and possible for them to do so.
Team Morrison said in a statement on their Instagram page:
‘This is the toughest thing we’ve ever had to post. Unfortunately, our team has continued to suffer the consequences of covid, and we have lost more team members. Because of this, we have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the world championships in order to protect the rest of the teams and officials. We are completely devastated that this week which should have been one of the best experiences of our life has turned into this. We cannot thank everyone enough for their support – especially our behind-the-scenes team who have tried so hard to make this work for us. We really hope that we will get this experience again, and we look forward to the day we can all step onto the ice together again.’
Scotland’s on-ice campaign at the World Women’s started off in the toughest possible way, down to three players and up against reigning champions Switzerland (who would go on to defend their title unbeaten). Although Scotland went into the game with hammer and opened the scoring with a single in End 1, on-form Team Tirinzoni showed no mercy. The game concluded after the mandatory six ends played and the scores reading 12-1.
Their next, and, as it turned out, final, fixture, however, was a formidable display of strength and perseverance. Still playing as a trio, Scotland were trailing Czech Republic by five points after four ends but found an extra gear to cut their deficit with a three in End 5. Going into the second half, both sides scored with hammer, but the Scots outcounted their opponents with another two threes and took the lead by a single point with one end remaining. Unfortunately, the comeback eventually didn’t quite come off when Czech skip Alzbeta Baudysova executed a throw for two in the 10th end that secured her a 10-9 win.
(Images: WCF/Jeffrey Au)
