Kerri Einarson and Prince George, B.C., are about to get a women’s world curling championship do-over.
Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Brianne Meilleur had just arrived in that city two years ago fresh off their first Canadian championship as a team and ready to curl for a world title.
The 2020 women’s championship was among the early international sporting events engulfed by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Canadians and the rest of the international teams quickly headed home when it was cancelled and the sporting world went dark.
Curling Canada compensated Prince George with the hosting of the 2022 women’s tournament.
Claiming a third straight national women’s championship in February brings Einarson back to the city for another shot at world championship gold there.
Her Gimli Curling Club foursome from Manitoba opens Saturday against Italy and Norway at the 6,000-seat CN Centre, where there will be unmasked fans to cheer on the host country.
“As soon as we found out that it was in Prince George, we’re like ‘we need to get back there where it all started,”‘ Einarson said.
“We missed out on that opportunity in 2020, so we’re going to take full advantage and give it our all there for Canada.”
Canada is among 13 countries playing a round robin with the top six advancing to playoffs March 26.
WATCH | Einarson wins Scotties again:
Kerri Einarson’s Team Canada held off a late rally by Krista McCarville of Northern Ontario for a 9-6 victory to win her third consecutive Scotties Tournament of Hearts Sunday night in Thunder Bay, Ont. 4:20
Medals games scheduled for March 27
The first and second seeds get byes to the semifinals with third to sixth duking it out to join them. The medal games are March 27.
Einarson finished sixth in last year’s world championship held in Calgary’s curling bubble with no spectators.
After opening 1-5, her team won six straight to reach the playoff round and secure an Olympic berth for Canada in women’s curling. Einarson then fell short of the semifinals with a loss to Sweden.
“This year is a little different,” Einarson said. “There’s not an Olympic spot on the line, so there’s not that added extra pressure.
“We just learned to feel what it is like out there and what it’s like to represent Canada on the world stage.”
There were fans in Saskatoon’s arena for November’s Olympic curling trials, where Einarson went 4-4 and was eliminated with a tiebreaker loss.
Only volunteers and some juniors curlers were allowed into Thunder Bay’s Fort Williams Gardens on the final weekend when Einarson completed her Scotties Tournament of Hearts hat trick Feb. 6.
B.C. lifted its indoor mask requirement and capacity restrictions just eight days before the world championship.
“It is an absolute dream come true to play in front of all of our family and friends and fans in Canada,” the skip said.
“Having that support behind us is definitely going to be very helpful and we’re going to feed off that crowd.”
A world championship on the heels of a Winter Olympics makes for an irregular field.
Einarson won’t face reigning Olympic champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland or Satsuki Fujisawa’s silver medal team from Japan. Those countries are represented by other teams in Prince George.
Russia booted out of tournament
The World Curling Federation also booted Russia, the women’s world runner-up in 2021, out of its championships because of that country’s invasion of Ukraine last month.
Back-to-back world champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland, Olympic bronze medallist Anna Hasselborg of Sweden and 2018 Olympic silver medallist EunJung Kim of South Korea are expected to provide the toughest competition for Einarson in her bid for a world title.
Rachel Homan (2017) and Jennifer Jones (2018) skipped the only Canadian teams to win gold in the last dozen women’s world championships.
The WCF will test a no-tick rule — which doesn’t allow for the removal of a guard touching the centre line until the sixth rock of an end — at both the women’s and men’s worlds championships this year.
A tick shot that pushes guards to the side, but not out of play, is a strategy that emerged from the free guard zone rule that doesn’t allow rocks in front of the rings to be removed until the sixth delivered stone of an end.
“We’re a team that plays the tick a lot, so I feel we may have a little more of a learning curve than some other teams,” Meilleur said. “At the same time, we’re a really aggressive team, so I don’t think it will take us too out of our element.”
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