Canada won gold medals Saturday in both the men’s and women’s events at the World Senior Curling Championships in St. Paul, Minnesota. And both teams went undefeated in doing so.

Christine Jurgenson of Victoria, British Columbia, led her team to a gold medal, defeating Sweden’s Ingrid Meldahl, 9-2 in the women’s final, while Edmonton’s Mark Johnson duplicated that feat, while handing the United States its only loss of the week, 5-4 in a riveting men’s final.

The victory capped a perfect week for the Juan de Fuca Curling Club foursome of Jurgenson, Cheryl Noble, Pat Sanders and lead Roselyn Craig. After going 10-0 in the round robin, they defeated Switzerland, 6-5 in a tight semi-final to advance to today’s gold medal game.

Switzerland ( Chantal Forrer) took the bronze medal on Saturday, 5-4 over the United States (Margie Smith).

Meanwhile, Johnson had to scratch and claw for every point in a battle of unbeaten teams. His Thistle Curling Club team of third Marv Wirth, second Ken McLean and lead Millard Evans took one in the eighth end to tie the game at four, after blanking the seventh, before stealing the winning point in an extra end.

Both Canada and the United States, skipped by Wisconsin’s Geoff Goodland, had finished the round robin with 6-0 records, while capturing the Red and Blue Groups, respectively. Johnson first beat Scotland, 9-3 in a quarter-final, then demolished Australia, 11-1 in a semi-final, while Goodland took care of New Zealand, 6-2 in another quarter-final, before beating Denmark, 11-2 in the other semi-final, to set up the showdown.

Australia (Hugh Millikin) won the bronze medal, defeating Denmark (Bent Kristoffersen), 8-5.

The World Mixed Doubles championship, held in conjunction with the World Seniors, went to Switzerland’s Sven Michel and Alina Pätz, who defeated Russia, 11-2 in the gold medal game, while France edged Sweden, 8-6 for the bronze.

Canada’s Robert Campbell and Rebecca Jean MacDonald finished with an overall record of 5-4, after being eliminated in a second tiebreaker on Friday.

Click for full story at the CCA website.

Canada (Mark Johnson) defeated United States (Geoff Goodland) 5-4 in the World Senior Men’s final.

Skip: Mark Johnson, Third: Marv Wirth, Second: Ken McLean, Lead: Millard Evans,
Alternate: Brad Hannah and Coach: Bill Tschirhart

Canada (Christine Jurgenson) defeated Sweden (Ingrid Meldahl) 9-2 in the World Senior Women’s final.

Skip: Christine Jurgenson, Third: Cheryl Noble, Second: Pat Sanders, Lead: Roselyn Craig, Alternate: Lena West and Coach: Bill Tschirhart

(by Eric McCarthy)

MILBURN – For many young curlers, playing in the Canada Games would be the highlight of their junior careers.

Until last month that was the case for 17-year-old Emily Gray from Milburn, near O’Leary. Gray played second stone on Amanda MacLean’s Maple Leaf Curling Club rink that represented P.E.I. at the Canada Winter Games in February.

“The atmosphere was so much fun over there,” Gray said. “I met a lot of new friends. Hopefully, I will see them at nationals soon.”

While winning the right to represent P.E.I. at next year’s Canadian juniors is Team MacLean’s next big goal, Gray is already on the fast-track to an even greater curling milestone.

Two weeks ago, during the fifth-end break in the one-vs.-two Page playoff game of the world men’s curling championship in Regina, Sask., Team Canada’s curlers for next January’s 2012 Youth Winter Olympics in Innsbrook, Austria, were announced. Gray will play lead on Thomas Scoffin’s Canadian mixed junior team. She is the only player on the team from east of Manitoba.

“It was just amazing,” Gray said of the Regina experience.

She had known about her selection since the middle of March, but had to keep that quiet until the official introduction. The significance of her selection really started to sink in when she looked in the mirror with her team jacket on, and saw the Team Canada crest over her heart.

“It was actually kind of a surprise to see myself in the mirror wearing a Team Canada jacket, and it being mine,” she smiled.

Click for full story in the Journal-Pioneer.

Team Canada (Robert Campbell and Rebecca Jean MacDonald) won the first of two tiebreakers at the World Mixed Doubles in Saint Paul Minnesota, beating Slovakia 7-4.  They are now playing Denmark in the second game, which got underway at 12:30 PEI time. Denmark has last rock advantage in the first end.

Photo: Rebecca Jean MacDonald, Robert Campbell (Credit: World Curling Federation)

Team Canada (PEI’s Robert Campbell and Rebecca Jean MacDonald) lost a close 8-7 extra end decision to Slovakia in their lone Wednesday game this afternoon at the World Mixed Doubles in Saint Paul Minnesota, to slip to 2-3 in their round robin pool. Switzerland leads the pool with a perfect 5-0 record, followed by Russia at 4-1, and Denmark and Slovakia at 3-2.

In today’s game, Slovakia picked up a big lead early, taking four in the first end, and stealing a single in the second. Campbell fought back with deuces in ends three and six, while Slovakia had singles in four and five to lead 7-4 after six. PEI  then tied the game by stealing a single in seven and a deuce in eight to force an extra end, where Campbell failed to execute his final shot.  “We weren’t positive on the ice on whether it was going to run straight or curl up at the end. I just got a hair tight on it. We were just trying to hit half rock and pick the one off the button that was shot rock. It’s just been a struggle for me to throw around the centreline. I threw a really bad shot with my last one on the first end. Getting wide is not a problem. I’ve been try to back Rebecca Jean up and I’ve just not been doing a very good job of it right now.”

Round robin play play wraps up on Thursday, with Canada playing Italy (1-4) and Russia (4-1). The finals go Saturday afternoon.

Mixed doubles curling has teams of two players – one male and one female (no alternate/spare player is allowed).
– Teams have only six stones each (instead of eight) – and one of those stones, from each team, is prepositioned on the centreline before each end of play starts.
– Player one delivers the first and last stones and player two plays the second, third and fourth stones. If they choose to, the two players may swap positions from one end to the next.
– Sweeping can be done by both team members.
– Each team receives 46 minutes of playing time and games are fixed at 8 ends – compared to 73 minutes and 10 ends for “traditional” curling.

Website: www.2011worldcurling.com

(By: Avi Saper) Derek Oryniak earned more than just a bronze medal as the second on Manitoba’s men’s curling team at the Canada Winter Games.

Oryniak’s solid play in that event garnered him one of four spots on the team that will represent Canada at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games next January in Innsbruck, Austria.

While curlers’ on-ice performances in Halifax were one factor in the selection of Team Canada, the Canadian Curling Association also placed an emphasis on academic excellence, extra-curricular activities and community involvement.

“When I sent in my application I thought I had a chance,” said the 16-year-old from North Kildonan. “But it was still a big surprise when I got picked. I was so excited I can’t even explain it. It was incredible.”

Oryniak, who recently won the provincial 16-and-under championship as part of Kyle Doering’s rink, will be joined on the mixed team by Emily Gray of Prince Edward Island, Corryn Brown of British Columbia and Thomas Scoffin of the Yukon.

The foursome will play in two events in Austria: a 16-country competition for the medals, followed by a mixed-doubles event in which players from different countries will be paired together.

“It’s going to be interesting,” Oryniak said. “Our team is worrying about the main event, since we won’t even know our partners until we get there.”

The Grade 11 student from Miles Macdonell Collegiate expects to play second for Team Canada, and had nothing but praise for his teammates.

“They’re all really great players,” he said. “Thomas is a really good skip, Corryn is one of the best female players I’ve ever seen… and Emily is probably a better sweeper than me.”

Now that he’s under the CCA’s high-performance umbrella, Oryniak will have every opportunity to improve that sweeping between now and January.

Gerry Peckham, the CCA’s director of high performance, said the organization will do everything it can to build a cohesive team out of athletes from all parts of the country while still respecting their commitments to their regular teams.

“When we were in Regina [during the Men’s World Curling Championship, where the team was introduced during a playoff game] we were doing some team building, practising and a couple of exhibition games,” Peckham said.

The team will be in Edmonton later this month along with other elite teams for a camp at the national training centre, and will compete in several competitions early next season.

Oryniak plans to use all the tools at his disposal — from sports psychologists to fitness experts to a sweeping clinic — to become a better player.

Click for full story in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Photo: Robert Campbell, Rebecca Jean MacDonald

PEI’s Robert Campbell and Rebecca Jean MacDonald, Canada’s team at the World Mixed Doubles in Saint Paul Minnesota, lost their only game today, a 6-4 decision to Norway, who, trailing 3-1 after three ends, picked up four points in the fourth end and stole a single in the fifth to pull ahead. PEI picked up singles in the next two ends, but couldn’t pull out the victory, and now slip to 2-2 in their pool, behind unbeaten Switzerland (4-0), and Russia at 3-1, and tied with Denmark and Slovakia.

MacDonald says she is enjoying the mixed doubles format. “Each end is just a new game and that how you have to play it. This is our first time ever playing mixed doubles [in Canada the mixed doubles team is drawn from the four player Canadian Mixed champion team]. This is the real thing. I am really enjoying it and I think it’s got potential to go somewhere. You just need to get in to the method and the format but it’s a lot of fun out there.”

Campbell is also a fan of mixed doubles. “I love the format – it’s different for us being from Canada – we are used to playing four on four mixed. We had to put a lot of practise into it and hopefully things will pay off this week. It’s a fun, fun game and hopefully we’ll just play better and better as the week goes on. It’s a game where you need patience and you need to really interact with your teammate – you have to know each other really well.”

Team Canada takes on Slovakia at noon PEI time in their only Wednesday contest. Round robin play play wraps up on Thursday, with Canada playing Italy (1-3) and Russia (3-1). The finals go Saturday afternoon.

Mixed doubles curling has teams of two players – one male and one female (no alternate/spare player is allowed).
– Teams have only six stones each (instead of eight) – and one of those stones, from each team, is prepositioned on the centreline before each end of play starts.
– Player one delivers the first and last stones and player two plays the second, third and fourth stones. If they choose to, the two players may swap positions from one end to the next.
– Sweeping can be done by both team members.
– Each team receives 46 minutes of playing time and games are fixed at 8 ends – compared to 73 minutes and 10 ends for “traditional” curling.

Website: www.2011worldcurling.com