By: Jim Morris, The Canadian Press

A new format will see 14 rinks in the hunt Saturday when the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship begins in Sudbury, Ont.

For the first time Nunavut will be represented at the event. Teams will also battle not to finish among the bottom four rinks to avoid a playoff next year.

“It’s the first time so we will see how it goes,” said Ontario’s Rachel Homan, the 2010 Canadian junior women’s champion, who will be playing third for brother, Mark Homan.

“It’s going to be a long week but it always is. Whether we play an extra game here or there it doesn’t really make much of a difference.”

Traditionally, 12 rinks compete at a major curling championship. In the past the 10 provinces plus Northern Ontario sent teams.

The Northwest Territories and Yukon would play off to select one rink. Nunavut wasn’t represented.

Danny Lamoureux of the Canadian Curling Association said the new format was approved two years ago and will allow all the provinces and territories access to most championships.

“Normally we would have had a playoff for the last two spots,” said Lamoureux, the CCA’s director of championship services and curling club development. “But the Sudbury Curling Club was kind enough  to open up another sheet of ice to give us five sheets.

“That enables us to get all 14 teams to play together.”

The tournament will return to 12 rinks next year. The four teams with the worst records from this year’s event will meet in a double-knockout playoff prior to next year’s competition.

Click to read the full Canadian Press story in the Winnipeg Free Press