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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Team USA receives donation of new rims for Sochi


           
By Terry Kolesar | Oct 15, 2013, 12:00 AM ET
 
Team USA will be sporting fashionable new rims for Sochi as the national wheelchair team received a donation for the upcoming season.
 
Precision Billet Co., an Arizona company, has donated five sets of rims to Team USA. “We have been manufacturing our custom wheelchair wheels for several years now as a sideline to our other products. Our goal in creating our custom wheels has always been to offer everyone a chance to ‘pimp out their ride,’” said David Shano, owner of Precision Billet. “We realized the need in the market for a one-piece wheel that had better glide than other wheels that were available; in addition we wanted to add a cool factor. We incorporate our knowledge of the custom Harley Davidson accessory business (which is our core customer) to create wheels that have design elements that set them apart from everyday wheels. Just recently, we have really made a push to market with our wheels, our ultimate desire is to make full wheelchairs.” 
 
The company was contacted via Facebook by Patrick McDonald (Madison, Wis.), skip for Team USA. “Well, that was all it took for our team to get busy on a design,” Shano said. “We were all inspired by the opportunity to create such a special wheel that would represent the USA in a very cool way.  We hope to somehow put a program together to reach out to other teams and make the wheels available.”
 
Team USA is preparing for the upcoming 2014 Paralympic Winter Games with camps and competitions throughout the U.S. and Canada after competing in Denmark last month.  
 
“I called the guys at Precision Billet over the summer and asked if they could help me come up with something really clean and cool and that would stand out while we curled in Sochi, and they said yes they wanted to be on board with Team USA,” McDonald said. “So we tossed around a few ideas and in the end I really liked how the rims turned out. With the help of David and the rest of the hard-working guys at Precision Billet, the 2014 U.S. wheelchair curling team will be wearing my signature Team USA rims while competing in Sochi.”
 
According to Shano, when the rims become available to the public in November, 10 percent of all sales will be donated to the U.S. wheelchair curling team.
 
For more than 15 years, the Precision Billet family of brands has been bringing to market the finest quality and most innovative billet accessories for Yamaha Rhinos and Polaris Rangers, Polaris RZR, Kawasaki Teryx and Harley Davidson motorcycles. They also offer high-quality wake board towers and wake boarding accessories. To find out more, go to http://precisionbillet.co.  
 
Visit the USA Curling website at www.usacurl.org and connect with USA Curling on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Foursquare.
 
 
For more information: Terry Kolesar, USA Curling, terry.kolesar@usacurl.org, 715-344-1199, Ext. 202, or 608-338-9900 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 608-338-9900 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting (cell)

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

WCF Athlete Commission Survey: Wheelchair Curling

WCF Athlete Commission Survey: Wheelchair Curling


Photo: WCF/ Alina Pavlyuchik
At a recent meeting of the WCF Athletes Commission at the World Curling Congress 2013 in Copenhagen, Denmark, it was agreed to open discussions with wheelchair curlers of all levels of ability throughout the world and seek their views on a number of issues that currently affect the sport.
Your views are important and can help make a significant difference to the sport. We would therefore be much obliged if you could spare 5-10 minutes to complete the survey, available to download below.
All completed surveys should be returned to info@worldcurling.org no later than 31 December 2013.

Downloads

 Wheelchair Curling SurveyDOC328Kb   

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Kinross Wheelchair Curling International

Kinross Wheelchair Curling International

15/10/2013
 
Picture2011 Champions, Russia.
From Tuesday 15th - Thursday 17th October, we will be hosting the 7th Kinross Wheelchair Curling International Invitational.
This is a very popular competition that has, throughout its short history, brought many of the world's top players & teams to our rink: Continuing this high standard, the 2013 line-up includes six teams that will be competing at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.

Both of our 2012 finalists, Norway (skipped by Rune Lorensten) & Finland (skipped by Tuomo Aarnikka), will be returning this year, while the host nation is represented by Jim Gault's Scotland team and by Aileen Neilson's GB team.

Over the three days of the competition, 11 teams will compete within two sections for a place in the finals on Thursday afternoon.



Section A consists of:

Great Britain (Aileen Neilson, Gregor Ewan, Robert McPherson, Tom Killen),
Finland (Tuomo Aarnikka, Markku Karjalainen, Sari Karajalainen, Mina Mojtahedi, Vesa Hellman),
Russia 1 (Andrey Smirnov, Marat Romanov, Aleksandr Schevchenko, Svetlana Pakomova, Konstanton Kurokhtin),
Sweden (Jalle Jungnell, Patrik Kallin, Gert Erlandsson, Kicki Ulander, Zandra Reppe),
Russia 3 (Valerii Ulianov, Vladislac Makarov, Vitaly Danilov, Valery Baranov, Svetlana Parshina),
Switzerland (Felix Wagner, Eric Decorvet, Claudia Huttenmoser, Mireille Gauthey).

Section B consists of:

Scotland (Jim Gault, Ian Donaldson, Angie Malone, Gill Keith),
Norway (Rune Lorensten, Jostein Stordahl, Anne Mette Samdal, Lene Tystad, Ole Fredrik Syversen),
Italy (Paolo Loriatti, Gabriele Dallapiccola, Sergio De Florian, Lucrezia Celentano, Rosanna Menazzi),
Russia 2 (Boris Gorchakov, Alexey Fatuev, Elena Dzhumaeva, Oxana Slesarenko, Darya Shchuckina),
Latvia (Ojars Briedis, Polina Rozkova, Ilmars Nicmanis, Agris Lasmans).


The competition draw is outlined below, with all games being played to 6 ends or the bell:

DATE / TIME
Tues, 18:30

Wed, 08:30
Wed, 10:30
Wed, 12:30,
Wed, 14:30

Thurs, 09:00
Thurs, 11:30,
Thurs, 15:15
SHEET A
SWE v RUS 1

GBR v RUS 3
LAT v SCO
X
SUI v FIN

ITA v NOR
RUS 3 v SWE
X
SHEET BSUI v RUS 3

FIN v SWE
RUS1 v GBR
X
RUS2 v ITA

GBR v FIN
SCO v NOR
A1 v B1 FINAL
SHEET C
RUS 2 v SCO

RUS 1 v SUI
RUS 3 v FIN
NOR v LAT
GBR v SWE

LAT v RUS2
FIN v RUS1
A2 v B2 FINAL
SHEET D
ITA v LAT

NOR v RUS2
SWE v SUI
SCO v ITA
RUS1 v RUS3

X
SUI v GBR
X

With so many world-class teams competing at our home rink, this is a spectating opportunity not to be missed. If you've not seen wheelchair curling before, the accuracy & skill will astonish you, so please come along and support one of the top events on the international wheelchair curling calendar. Who knows, there might even be a little surprise awaiting everyone...
 
Our British Curling Performance Squad teams are looking forward to playing in such a great event right here at home. This Monday will be the first day of a 15 day competitive schedule for our ParalympicsGB team as immediately following the Kinross International we will be flying out to Richmond, BC for the Canadian Open. I will post updates as best I can and I know the athletes appreciate the messages you send back so please keep giving us the support as we prepare for Sochi 2014!