COVID casts its curse on provincial playdowns

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This article was published 21/12/2020 (1932 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The latest sports event to get axed owing to the pandemic: the Manitoba women’s, men’s and mixed doubles curling provincial championships.

On Monday, Curl Manitoba announced the Scotties Provincials and Viterra, originally scheduled to be held in Selkirk in early February, have been cancelled. Last season’s winners will represent the province at the 2021 nationals which are set to take place in a bubble in Calgary in February and March.

Jason Gunnlaugson, the 2020 Viterra champ, and his team from Morris will head to the Brier for the second straight year. St. Vital’s Jennifer Jones will make her 16th appearance at nationals as she was the runner-up to Gimli’s Kerri Einarson in last year’s provincial final. Einarson went on to capture the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in February and will be Team Canada at this year’s event.

Curl Manitoba executive director Craig Baker said with code red restrictions being extended until at least Jan. 8, the organization felt it was necessary to officially pull the plug. Even if the restrictions were lifted in time for provincials, Baker said they didn’t feel comfortable jumping straight into a major competition.

“If and when sports are able to return, the focus needs to be on the community first… Curl Manitoba felt we need to do our part and support the people that are helping us through the last few months. We don’t want to encourage provincial travel, either,” Baker said in a phone interview.

Jones said as much as it hurts to see provincials cancelled, it’s nice that teams no longer have to wonder if it’s going to happen or not. Curl Ontario also cancelled its provincials on Monday.

“Obviously you’re disappointed you don’t get to compete at a provincial because it’s so much fun and winning that final game to represent your province is always just a massive thrill, but at the end of the day, we’re just honoured and thrilled to represent Manitoba at the Scotties,” Jones said.

“In a world of uncertainty right now, having clarity on whether provincials is going to go or not is just a great feeling. We now know and we can make a plan and try to be as ready as we can be for February.”

For Gunnlaugson, his victory over Mike McEwen in the Viterra final back in February ended up being more important than they thought as it secured them two Brier births. But with all the clubs in the province shuttered, preparing for Calgary won’t be easy. Manitoba’s mixed-doubles champions Krysten Karwacki and Derek Samagalski have also accepted an invitation to participate in the Calgary bubble.

“It’s such a great opportunity and a unique responsibility to be Team Manitoba in curling with all the success those teams have had over the years,” Gunnlaugson said.

“I think we’re just gonna jump in and make the best possible plan we can to be as ready to perform as we can. It might be pretty minimal what we can do on the ice, but we’ve always been a strong starting team on the tour season.”

Baker said Curl Manitoba has yet to determine what will happen to teams that qualified for 2021 provincials and whether or not they’ll have their spots guaranteed for 2022. For top Manitoban teams without a nationals spot secured, they’re anxiously waiting for answers.

A decision has yet to be made on what will happen to McEwen, who beat Glenn Howard to be the wild card team at last season’s Brier, and Tracy Fleury, who was the top-ranked team in Curling Canada’s Canadian Team Rankings System (CTRS) before falling to Jones in the Scotties play-in game. Curling Canada has yet to announce if there will be a wild card spot up for grabs or if any changes will be made to the 16-team format.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31