For Immediate Release
March 20, 2013
Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship begins Monday in
Ottawa
OTTAWA —
The 10th Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship gets underway
Monday at the RA Centre in Ottawa.
Ten
teams will compete in a round robin from March 25-29, leading to the Page playoff
system (1 vs 2, winner to final, loser to semifinal; 3 vs 4, winner to
semifinal, loser eliminated) on Saturday, March 30, with the semifinal (10 a.m.
EDT) and final (3 p.m. EDT) scheduled for Sunday, March 31.
The
roster includes a number of Canadian and world champions. Back to defend their
Canadian title won last year in Thunder Bay are Saskatchewan’s Darwin Bender,
from the Callie Curling Club in Regina, along with teammates Gil Dash, Marie
Wright and Larry Schrader.
In last
year’s final, Bender defeated Alberta’s Bruno Yizek, 7-6 in an extra end.
Yizek, representing the Calgary Curling Club, is also returning with his team
of Jack Smart, Martin Purvis and Anne Hibberd intact.
Yizek
was the alternate for Canada (skip Jim Armstrong) when winning gold medals at
both the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver and the 2011 World Wheelchair
Curling Championship in Prague.
British
Columbia will be directed by two-time Canadian champion Gary Cormack, whose
team represents both the Marpole Curling Club of Vancouver and Richmond Curling
Club, while his third, Frank La Bounty, is a three-time Canadian champion.
Manitoba’s
Chris Sobkowicz of Winnipeg returns with third Dennis Thiessen and lead Melissa
Lecuyer, who teamed to win the 2011 Canadian title in Edmonton.
Sobkowicz,
who curls out of Assiniboine Memorial, was the alternate for Canada (skip Jim
Armstrong) when the team captured a gold medal at the 2009 World Wheelchair
Curling Championship in Vancouver. Thiessen played third for Canada (skip Jim
Armstrong) when the team won gold last month at the 2013 World Wheelchair
Curling Championship in Sochi, Russia.
Rounding
out the field are New Brunswick (skip Michael Fitzgerald of Saint John),
Newfoundland/Labrador (Joanne MacDonald of St. John’s), Northern Ontario (Gino
Sonego of Thunder Bay), Nova Scotia (Trendal Hubley-Bolivar of Lower
Sackville), Ontario (Ken Gregory of Bradford) and Quebec (BenoƮt Lessard of
Magog).
Since
the inaugural Canadian championship in 2004, British Columbia has four wins— in
2007 (skip Darryl Neighbour), 2008 and 2009 (Armstrong) and in 2010 (Cormack).
Team Canada (skip Chris Daw) has three victories while Manitoba and
Saskatchewan have each won once.
For
media inquiries during the event, contact Danny Lamoureux (dlamoureux@curling.ca/613-878-3682)
or Paul Noble (pnoble@curling.ca/613-355-7328).
Draw results and other event
information will be available at www.curling.ca and http://www.curling.ca/championships/wheelchair.
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