Skills contest is pre-championship fun for Jones, Lawes (Winnipeg Free Press)

(By: Paul Wiecek)

CHARLOTTETOWN — Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones and her third Kaitlyn Lawes are off to a hot start here at the 2011 Canadian Womens Curling Championship. And the event hasn’t even formally started yet.

Jones defeated Lawes in an all-Team Canada final of the pre-event individual skills competition Saturday afternoon.

Jones won a two-year lease on a vehicle, while Lawes won $2,000.

“It was fun. And to have both of us in the final was super-fun. I was super happy for Kaitlyn,” Jones said, cautioning against reading too much into her team’s dominance of the skills competition as a harbinger of things to come.

“The Hot Shots is the Hot Shots. It’s completely different than a curling game so you never look too hard at it going into the week. It’s a fun way for us to start. And like I said, I wanted to make sure Kaitlyn enjoyed herself this week and it’s a pretty nice way for her to start.”

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