Gauthier going to Siberia, and happy about it

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This article was published 09/02/2020 (2277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Call it a blessing in disguise for Jacques Gauthier’s young curling team.

The newly minted Canadian junior men’s curling champions bowed out of the Viterra provincial men’s championship on the Saturday morning draw, the team’s seventh game of the five-day event. William Lyburn from the Granite Club administered the knockout blow, posting a 9-3 victory.

Gauthier, third Jordan Peters, second Brayden Payette and lead Zach Bilawka have been through the wringer the last few weeks, enduring the rigours of the week-long national junior in Langley, B.C., late last month that culminated with a euphoric triumph. Since then, they’ve had to rearrange school and work schedules to accommodate a nearly two-week trek to Siberia — Krasnoyarsk, Russia, to be precise.

Credit the crew for reserving some energy and focus for the Viterra provincial men’s championship; the Assiniboine Memorial team made the eight-team playoffs, something 24 others failed to do.

Now, it’s time to for a reboot, just in time for a send-off party at their home club tonight. They’re scheduled to leave for Russia on Monday.

“Our goal was the eights and we made our goal. We had three games (Friday) and that was a long day of curling. The adrenaline got us through it. This (event) really helped us. It’s some of the best practise you can ever get, anywhere in the world,” said Payette. “In Manitoba, we have some of the top men’s teams in Canada. This was a good run.

“We all said that we made our goal. It would have been nice to win, but that would have meant (four) more games. That’s a grind. It’s not the end of the world to get a break. We’re all gassed. We need to rest up, pack and get ready to head off.”

The Gauthier foursome will have company at the worlds. Altona’s Mackenzie Zacharias won the national junior women’s crown Jan. 26 in Langley to complete the Manitoba sweep. The worlds go Feb. 15-22 in a new curling facility in Krasnoyarsk.

DOUBLE DISAPPOINTMENT

TANNER Horgan got a double dose of disappointment Saturday morning.

The Viterra championship’s third-seeded team suffered an 8-6 defeat to St. Vital’s Ryan Wiebe, ousting them from the event and ending any chance of an appearance in the Brier wild-card game the night before the national playdowns begin in Kingston, Ont., at the end of February.

Several things needed to fall into place for the Winnipeg Beach team, but paramount was taking care of the business they could control — reaching at least the semifinal on Sunday morning.

“There’s no wild-card for us. This will be it for our season this year,” said Horgan, 21, a Sudbury, Ont., resident, who aligned himself with terrific young players Colton Lott, Kyle Doering and Tanner Lott for the 2019-20 season. The designated import has been battling a cold all.

“This is a tough finishing, obviously. We were hoping for a lot more, especially being the third seed. We expected to be there Sunday.”

Horgan is 10th on the Canadian Team Ranking System and needed a top-three finish here to vaul over Ontario’s Glenn Howard in the standings. Of the eight teams ahead of Howard, five are Brier bound. Three others, Manitoba’s top two teams, Mike McEwen and Jason Gunnlaugson, along with Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher, are still in the mix for their provincial titles and a spot in the wild-card game.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR

VETERAN skip Sean Grassie of Deer Lodge is working on an intriguing project off the ice.

He’s written a book that tells 150 stories of Manitoba sports achievement, and it’s part of the province’s 150 birthday celebrations this year. He’s partnering with Sport Manitoba and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame to raise money for KidSport Manitoba.

It’s Grassie’s second book. His first, Kings of the Rings: 125 Years of the World’s Biggest Bonspiel, was released in 2012 and chronicled the long history of the MCA curling bonspiel.

His new book goes well beyond the rings.

“This one’s going to be all sports in Manitoba’s history, athletes and teams, events, historic moments,” he said. “It’s 150 different stories. We started about a year ago and I put together a draft list of stories, and Rick Brownlee of the hall of fame had a list, too. We had a panel to get to 150 stories and we also had a public submission.”

Grassie, who won a Canadian mixed title in 2009 and lost the Manitoba men’s final four years later to Jeff Stoughton in Neepawa, said 30 sports are represented in the book, and some might surprise the average Manitoban.

“We have two world handball champions over the years, some of the top water-skiers, a bowler from the 1950s. We tried to highlight some of those stories that people don’t know about,” said Grassie. “The idea was capturing 150 iconic moments, and then we dive into athletes’ backgrounds. The most fun part was learning so much about our sports history.”

The book is due out in May and will cost $20.20.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell