Experience pays for Canadian newcomers to mixed doubles curling

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This article was published 19/05/2021 (1908 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kerri Einarson and Brad Gushue are greenhorns when it comes to mixed doubles curling but their reputations as seasoned pros in the four-player game came in handy Wednesday afternoon.

Gushue, a world and Olympic champion from St. John’s, N.L., and Einarson, a two-time defending Canadian women’s champion from Camp Morton, wanted to apply early pressure on their 18-year-old foes, Kim Ji Yoon Kim and Moon Si Woo of South Korea.

Well, the Canadians got the desired start, scoring two in the opening end and adding steals of one in the second and third ends en route to an 8-3 triumph at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland.

“We have the experience and everything so we just wanted to put that pressure on them early and they’d never been televised either, right?” Einarson told the Free Press. “So that makes it a little more nerve-wracking (for them) but they put some pressure on us and there were some ends we had to make some big shots. They played pretty well and we were a little worried in that one end.”

That result, coupled with an 8-5 loss to Australia’s Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt in the morning draw, gave the Canadians a 4-1 record, which was good for three-way tie with Italy and Scotland atop the Group A standings.

The Australians, who are 1-4 and ninth in Group A, were not to be taken lightly.

At the 2019 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, Gill and Hewitt advanced through the 48-team field to the bronze-medal game before losing in an extra end to the U.S.

“We actually played OK against the Australians, but they didn’t miss,” said Einarson. “Their shots… for two, they made them. They were just making all those big shots against us. And we’re just on the wrong side of the inch — like I had a couple shots that I would have liked to take back, but we’re still learning the ice and just different paths and it can be tricky.”

Einarson is playing in only her second mixed doubles event but is proving to be a quick study. Her first resulted in winning a national title in late March with the 40-year-old Gushue in the Calgary bubble. The Canadian tandem won its first three contests in Aberdeen before Wednesday’s hiccup against the Aussies.

The appeal of the short, TV-friendly mixed doubles games is growing on the 33-year-old Einarson, a married mom of two girls.

“You see a lot more players playing it — it’s fun,” said Einarson. “I’ve always wanted to play it, but you know our schedules are so hectic. And it’s hard to fit that in with our women’s and men’s schedules. But this year was a little different because of COVID, so I was like, ‘OK, I can fit this in now that I will likely be in a bubble.’ I can make time for it.”

Speed is a critical factor and the Canadians needed to adjust their thinking with teams being allotted two fewer minutes on the game clock at worlds as opposed to the Canadian championship. The eight-end games can sneak up on players, too.

“It’s just totally different, it’s fast,” said Einarson. “It’s a fast-paced game and my very first game I didn’t realize it was the eighth end. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s the eighth end already.”

Three teams with the best records in each of the two pools advance to the weekend playoffs. In additon, the seven teams with the best overall records earn spots for their respective countries in the mixed doubles event of the 2022 Olympics.

Einarson and Gushue have two games against playoff contenders Thursday. Canada will face Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner at 6:30 a.m., and Scotland’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat at 1:30 p.m. Both games will be shown live on TSN.

“We’ve got a tough day ahead of us against two top teams tomorrow, so we wanted to make sure we got this one, which puts us in at 4-1, and now we’re in pretty good shape,” Gushue told Curling Canada.

Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg and John Morris of Canmore, Alta., combined to capture gold for Canada in the debut for mixed doubles at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14