Curlers sweep into Gimli for Scotties

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This article was published 22/01/2019 (2618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Val Sweeting’s foray into Manitoba curling comes with an extra workload.

“Yeah, there’s way more games,” said Sweeting with a laugh Tuesday afternoon in Gimli, site of the provincial women’s curling championship. “The minimum we play in Alberta is five and minimum we play here is nine but it’s good. We’ve played quite a few of these teams already this year.

“Some of the teams are new and I’m not familiar with but most of them are… the format’s different but it’s not an entirely new format. I’ve played a round robin before.”

Sweeting, an accomplished 31-year-old from Edmonton with two silver medals as a skip at the national Scotties under her belt, has been throwing third stones this season for Kerri Einarson’s powerhouse Gimli squad, which also includes second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meilleur.

Einarson’s team has been annointed the top seed, followed by East St. Paul’s Tracy Fleury, Assiniboine Memorial’s Darcy Robertson, Allison Flaxey from the Granite and Beth Peterson from Assiniboine Memorial.

The event opens Wednesday at the Gimli Recreation Centre with draws at 8:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 4 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.

Sweeting is fine with the marathon ahead.

“It’s a good prep for the winner going on to (national) Scotties, which is a really long week,” she said. “Especially, (since I’m) sweeping now it’ll feel even longer. It’ll be a good test that way and it’s always good to get those long, grindy weeks in. You learn a lot about yourself and your team.”

Robertson, who reached the provincial final a year ago before dropping a heart-breaking 7-6 decision to Jennifer Jones in Killarney, wants to be as steady as possible in Gimli.

“Our mindset is to just continue playing like we can,” said the 53-year-old Robertson, who has made three appearances at the national championship. “Curling’s a journey and it’s another step along the way. We want to go out and play our best obviously and see what happens.”

Robertson has the luxury of a veteran team with years of experience playing together. Second Vanessa Foster has been a teammate for more than 10 seasons while third Karen Klein (four years) and lead Teresa Cannon (two years) combine to make it a well-seasoned unit. The quartet is accustomed to the grind of a provincials.

“I think that you can conserve energy,” said Robertson, who plays her opening game against Assiniboine Memorial’s Laura Burtnyk in Wednesday’s 12:15 draw. “It’s a long week, there’s going to be stressful games, so you want to make sure you’re doing the right things, eating properly, getting your rest and try to conserve as much energy as you can for the end of the week…

“But you need to have a good start and get on a roll.”

Chances are the road to the top will have to go through the top seeds.

“I think Einarson is a seasoned team,” said Robertson. “They know how to deal with the pressure, they know how to deal with all the media and everything and I think most of the teams here have been here before. They know how to handle provincial week, which is pretty high energy and lots of pressure, lots of great games, lots of great teams. Most of the teams will be fine with dealing with the extra pressure.”

Sweeting, the newcomer, was enjoying an early taste of Gimli during Tuesday’s practice sessions.

“Yeah, it’s an awesome town,” she said. “It’s much bigger than I thought it was going to be. I’m from a small town in Saskatchewan and it’s quite small. Gimli’s nice and everybody’s excited to have us here. It’s going to be a good week.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14