Thursday, February 3, 2011

BC Provincial Championships begin Friday February 4

Three teams are scheduled to compete in the BC Provincial Championships in Kimberley starting tomorrow, February 4th at 4PM.

Defending National Champion Gary Cormack brings Vince Miele from last year's team and adds Frank LaBounty and Alison Duddy who played on the 2010 BC Championship team skipped by Gerry Austgarden.

Team Canada skip Jim Armstrong will be hoping to reclaim his Provincial title by teaming up with national team 3rd Darryl Neighbour, past Canada skip Chris Daw and lead Jackie Roy. Each of the men have won Paralympic curling gold medals and each have skipped a national championship team, while Jackie Roy won three national titles; in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Bob McDonald has Team Canada's Sonja Gaudet at third, with Bill Lindstrom and Samantha Sui.

Results will be available from this link.

Kimberley CC President Steve Tersmette is an enthusiastic supporter of wheelchair curling, and hopes the money invested in making the facilities accessible to attract a provincial championship will result in local wheelchair users trying out the sport.

Kimberley is close to the Alberta border while all but Sonja Gaudet will be travelling from the lower mainland, a distance factor that prohibited some of last year's competitors from registering this year. While CurlBC's policy of distributing championships across the Province has much to commend it, for a sport that is still attempting to become established as a recreation opportunity for wheelchair users, placing the championship such a long way from all current participants has meant a small field. Luckily, there is no snow in the immediate forecast.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

No contest, with Jim winning comfortably, and allowing Chris Daw a real opportunity come Nationals

Anonymous said...

Good for Darryl, Jackie and Jim for giving Chris a shot....it should be interesting....two skips on the same team does not necessarily mean success.

Anonymous said...

"No contest, with Jim winning comfortably, and allowing Chris Daw a real opportunity come Nationals"

he may win at the end.....but after today....maybe we got to respect every player...even in other team......

Anonymous said...

Who was it said "Jim in a walk?"

Anonymous said...

who said he walks?......the people on wheelchairs....

Anonymous said...

Actually, 2 players from the Cormack gold medal winning team drove about 18 hours from Prince George and Quesnel to be in Kimberley. Another on the Macdonald team drove from Barrier so giving yourself enough time seems to make a difference.