Sunday, March 1, 2009

2010 Paralympics teams line-up set

The ten teams who will compete for medals at the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics have been decided by adding the points each national team has earned in the three World Championships since the 2006 Torino Games.

Canada claim an automatic berth as hosts, and Scotland's points count for Great Britain. Points are allocated 12 for a win, 10 for second, 8 for third down to 1 for tenth. In 2007 teams with equal records divided the available points. The last two years, where it was not possible to rank by won/loss records, rankings were decided by a draw to the button.

Here are the teams, with accumulated three year points totals.

2007 2008 2009 Points
1 Norway 12 12 4 28
2 Canada 7 7 12 26
3 USA 5.5 8 7 20.5
4 Korea 4 10 5 19
5 Great Britain 8 4 6 18
6 Sweden 1 5 10 16
7 Switzerland 10 3 1 14
8 Germany - - 8 8
9 Italy - 6 2 8
10 Japan 5.5 2 0 7.5
Russia 3 1 0 4
Denmark 2 0 0 2

The 3 year system means that China, one of the most colourful teams at this year's tournament and victors over Canada, fail to qualify even though their won/loss record during round robin play tied them for 5th.

Germany's podium finish brought them a Paralympic berth. Switzerland, who are rebuilding their team around skip Manfred Bollinger, qualified by virtue of their silver medal in 2007.

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