WORLD CHAMPS SELECTION ENDS LONG WAIT FOR TEAM MOUAT

After dominating the domestic scene for the past year, Team Mouat has been selected to represent Scotland for a fourth successive year at the BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championship that will take place in Calgary next month.

Special bubble conditions to maximise protection for players and officials from the Coronavirus, have been introduced at the Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary’s Olympic Park to allow for the staging of a series of events which began last week with the Canadian Women’s Championship, The Scotties.

 The World Men’s Curling Championship will take place from April 3-11 and for skip Bruce Mouat and team mates Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, who have won every elite level event played on Scottish ice since the beginning of 2020, the excitement is intensified by the prospect of getting the chance to compete internationally for the first time in more than a year.

All the more so in this instance, because Mouat had been anticipating the mouth-watering prospect of playing a World Championship on home ice in Glasgow last year when that event was inevitably cancelled due to lockdown. That should have been the first of two men’s World Championships that would have seen points accrued towards Winter Olympic qualification, but that has only upped the ante this year with the top six finishers in the 14-team event qualifying automatically to go to Beijing, so avoiding the cut-throat Olympic qualifying competition.

“Obviously after winning five domestic events at the National Curling Academy (NCA) you like to think that you have proven yourself as the front runners but you just don’t want to accept that until you are given the nod,” the 26-year-old said after being told of his team’s selection.

“We like to think we are on the front foot for that Olympic spot as well and know that there is a job to do in order to secure that.

“After the disappointment of the cancelled World Champs last year which was really hard to take at the time, we are over the moon to get the selection and to get another chance to go. We are so excited and after everything that has happened over the last year we wanted to jump at this opportunity and know that entering that Calgary bubble for five weeks is going to be a unique experience.

“The big thing this year is that this will be our first taste of international competition for over a year. Usually we have a busy international schedule and a good lead up to a major event with plenty of games under our belts. This will be a very different test this time around.”

Rather than worry about the pressure of seeking to qualify Team GB for the Olympics, as well as seeking World Championship glory, having claimed a bronze medal at their first attempt in 2018, Mouat is looking only at positives.

“The uniqueness of this experience will be something we will remember for the rest of our lives, it will be unlike any World Champs anyone has been to before,” he said.

“We will be in the Calgary bubble for five weeks and the only time we will be leaving isolation in our hotel is when we will be going to the ice rink to compete, but that enables us to compete with our international rivals again. That will be a bonus seeing the familiar faces we are so used to seeing every other week on tour. It will only be when we are on ice and not elsewhere, but it will be great to test ourselves against them.”

While they have not had those opportunities to face international opposition, Mouat feels his team is as well prepared as it could be.

“We feel incredibly fortunate that British Curling has enabled us to prepare providing training and domestic competition which has put us in a good spot and so despite all the restrictions and cancellations we feel ready to go to the Worlds,” he said.

“This period away from tour has enabled us to work on other parts of our game and that has worked well for us during the NCA events and we want to see that translate against international rivals.

“We want to get back and compete as well as we can straight away, rather than finding our way in and we think all of the preparation has benefitted us in that respect. We have played a fraction of what we would have by this stage of the season, with not so many games under our belts, but we will be fresher and we are hungry for this.

“It might be different, it might be bizarre but our goals remain the same. We will be focusing on securing that GB spot for the Olympics and then we will be targeting that gold medal.

“We appreciate how hard everyone has worked in order to make this happen. It is always a huge privilege to represent and compete for Scottish Curling, it may look and feel different this time but we will rise to the challenge and fully embrace it when it happens.”

Ross Whyte, whose team has faced Mouat’s rink in the final of all five events staged at the NCA this season, has been selected to join them as their fifth man for the trip, having previously joined them at both European and World Championships.

Our Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Partners