#BetweenTheSheets: World Junior Curling
Championships Preview
Can Team Canada #DefendTheIce in Liverpool, NS?
Grand slam events. Tour events. National championships. They are all important during a curling season. But there is something extra special and extra exciting when you get to throw your national flag on your back and compete to represent your country.
Starting this weekend, 10 junior men's and junior women's teams will know that feeling. Some have experienced that feeling before. Some will feel that sense of national pride for the first time. Regardless of resume, all 20 teams will come out ready to chase world championship glory and fight to have their national flag hung and their national anthem played at the end of the event.
Welcome to the 2019 World Junior Curling Championships!
The world junior championship is a special event. It really is the epitome of the #growthesport movement. Many of the athletes who are competing this weekend in Liverpool, Nova Scotia are taking the first step towards chasing long-term curling careers. Who knows we may be watching a future world or Olympic champion this week? Is the next Niklas Edin or John Morris ready to take the spotlight? Or maybe we will see the next Anna Hasselborg or Eve Muirhead emerge from the field?
What we do know is participating in a world junior championship is a great first slide towards potential future success in the sport, win or lose this week. For the 80 athletes competing, the odds are already tipped in their favour to be seeing them at future world championships or as the #NextGen national champions for their respected countries. We already know the one men's and one women's team who takes home the gold medal next weekend will become a #gsoc competitor as the #WJCC2019 champions book a spot in the season-ending Champions Cup in April.
Knowing this event can pebble the ice for an athlete's future success, lets take a brief slide down the history path and familiarize ourselves with the World Junior Curling Championships. Pencils out....
- The first junior men's competition was 1975 held in East York, Ontario. The inaugural champion was Sweden's Jan Ullsten who defeated Canada's Robb King in the final. The first women's competition was 1988 in Chamonix, France with Canada's Julie Sutton taking the title over Switzerland's Marianne Amstutz.
- There have been 44 junior men's championships contested and 31 junior women's championships. Overall Canada leads the way with world titles, collecting 19 junior men and 12 junior women gold medals. Scotland follows for both with 10 (men) and 9 (women) respectively. Sweden sits third with titles won, collecting 5 (men, tied with Switzerland) and 4 (women). There have been 7 different nations hoisting the trophy for the men and women. Canada, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and USA have won both. Denmark and South Korea have one title for the junior men. Russia (2) and Norway (1) have won for the junior women.
- For overall medal count, Canada once again leads the way. The Maple Leaf has landed on the podium in 37 of the 44 junior men's championships and an even more remarkable 28 of 31 junior women's championships. Scotland is second on overall count for the men (28) while Sweden is second for the women (17). Add it all up and Canada has landed on the collective podium 65 of the 75 times the world junior championships have been held. Scotland is next with 43 with Switzerland third at 37.
- It is a Silver Medal Lining for the #SwedishVikings. The Swedish junior men have 11 silver medal wins (Canada has 10) while the junior women have 8 (tied with Canada). Leading the way with bronze medal wins is Scotland (12 - men) and Canada (8 - women).
- Collectively 12 different nations have landed on the podium at least once at a junior men's championship. South Korea has one medal but it was golden in 2017. Other nations sitting with 1 medal include Finland (silver - 1997) and Russia (silver - 2013). Denmark and France have won two medals with France yet to win gold.
- There have been 13 different nations donning the junior women's championship podium. Czech Republic (1 silver - 2012), China (1 bronze - 2018) and Italy (1 bronze - 2003) sit with a lone medal. Norway and South Korea are sitting with 2 overall medals.
- Slide in the right direction? How about this roll call example of junior men's champions: Peja Lindholm (1989), John Morris (1998, 1999), Brad Gushue (2001), Niklas Edin (2004), Peter de Cruz (2010), Oskar Eriksson (2011) and Bruce Mouat (2016).
- A sweeping <future> success in the women's game? A sample roll call of junior women's champions sure seems to support the claim: Julie Sutton (1988), Silvana Tirinzoni (1999), Eve Muirhead (2008, 2009, 2011), Anna Hasselborg (2010), Alina Kovaleva (2013) and Isabella Wrana (2017).
- Tyler Tardi will try to chase history once again at a curling competition. Tardi re-wrote the history books at the Canadian Junior Curling Championships when he accomplished the #3peat. In Liverpool, he will try to join a very prestigious list of athletes who #DefendTheIce. The only champions in the past to repeat are: John Morris, Charley Thomas (2006, 2007), Eve Muirhead and Kelsey Rocque (2014, 2015). How is that for a roll call?!?!
- Canada's Team Tardi will try to accomplish a rare feat...winning a world championship on home ice. In the 44-year history of the junior men's championship there have been 9 home nation celebrations. Canada does lead the way doing so 4 times (1977, 1983, 1998, 2002). Other nations to accomplish the feat include: Scotland (1991, 1995), Switzerland (2010, 2014) and South Korea (2017).
- Canada's Team Sturmay will also attempt to wow the home nation fans. In the 31-year history, a home nation win has only occurred 5 times. Again Canada leads the way with 3 (1989, 1996, 1998) with Scotland (2011) and Russia (2013) also picking up home titles.
- 2019 will be the second time the province of Nova Scotia has served as the backdrop for the world junior championship. The other time was back in 1986 when Dartmouth hosted the junior men's. Remember there was no junior women's championship in 1986. Scotland's David Aitken took the gold medal over Canada's Kevin Martin!
- A Double Double? Every year we wonder not only if the host nation can celebrate one title but can they pull the double rare double gold. The Double Double has been accomplished 8 times. Advantage for Tardi and Sturmay though? Canada has made it happen 7 times (1988, 1994, 1988, 2001, 2003, 2015, 2018). The only other nation to sweep the championship is Scotland (1993). But to make the feat even more remarkable, it has only been done ONCE on home ice - Canada 1998 with John Morris and Melissa McClure (now Adams).
*Ring, Ring* History class is now over. Recess time! Lets go have some fun at the rink and look at this year's #WJCC2019 field.
Clean your rocks curling fans, time to slide out of the hack with the perfect draw to the button preview and predictions:
World Junior Curling Championships
Liverpool, NS, Canada
2018 Champions: Canada - men (Team Tardi), Canada - women (Team Jones)
Format: 10-team RR with 4 playoff qualifiers. SF pairings will be 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 with winners advancing to world championship final.
MEN
#Fav
Canada (Team Tardi) - Tough not to label the defending champion as the favourite here. Tardi won the world junior title last year after a disappointing 2016 world junior's where he lost in a TB and failed to advance to the playoffs. The look of the team will be slightly different this year though, with new second Matt Hall (a #TwineTimeFam member remember) and lead Alex Horvath coming on board. They were still the dominant #TardiParty at the Canadian junior championships though and have been the class of the junior field for a few years. This will be the first world junior's as the host team though, with the past two competitions for Tardi taking place in South Korea and Scotland. We will see how the team handles home ice expectations. They can either feed off the energy or melt under the heat. Last year Tardi competed with something to prove and revenge on his mind from 2016. It is quite a different mindset entering a world championship as defending champ and having the target on your back. He has been successful on the national level, accomplishing the #3peat this year, can he #DefendTheIce internationally? Hard to bet against the talent on this team. Pay attention to their conditioning though as the week wears on. Remember they competed in the BC men's provincial championship right after they won the Canadian junior title (not to mention alternate Rylan Kleiter just finished competing at the Sask provincial championship last weekend). Fatigue could be a factor.
#Contenders
Scotland (Team Whyte) - If anyone would love to turn on the lights and end the #TardiParty it will be Scotland's Ross Whyte. Whyte lost the world final last season to Tardi....and as the home nation. Similar to how Tardi had revenge on his mind last year, Whyte will be looking to extract some revenge on his Canadian rival in front of his home nation fans this year. He brings with him an experienced squad as well. Lead Euan Kyle is back for his 3rd world junior, losing the bronze medal game back in 2016. And Whyte's alternate from last year, Duncan McFadzean, is now serving as vice on this team. Whyte was undefeated last year heading into the world final and picked the worst time to take his only loss of the competition. Revenge is a dangerous element on the ice folks and Whyte is bringing alot of it to Liverpool this year.
Norway (Team Ramsfjell) - Lets continue with the revenge theme shall we? What about Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell? Be tough to find anyone in this competition who comes to Liverpool with something to prove more than Ramsfjell. This will be his 4th consecutive world championship, just missing the playoffs in 2016, winning bronze in 2017 and finishing a game outside of the playoffs last year. How many times can one guy come oh so close to a world final yet come up short? This could be his year though. No team may be coming into this competition on more of a high than Ramsfjell. He is not only the Norway junior champ but, as of last weekend, is the newly crowned Norway men's champion as well, having slayed the King of Norway Thomas Ulsrud in the Norway championship final. Ramsfjell will be competing in Lethbridge at the upcoming men's world championship. Imagine him arriving there as the newly crowned world junior champ as well?!
USA (Team Stopera) - Keep the theme going right? USA's Andrew Stopera may feel like some revenge is owed to him as well in 2019. This will be Stopera's third straight world championship appearance after he accomplished the #3peat at US junior nationals. Unlike Canadian rival Tardi who improved on his 2016 final ranking, Stopera took a step back last year. In 2016 Stopera reached the world final, coming up short against South Korea's Lee Ki-jeong. Last year he finished tied for second in the RR but lost to Tardi in the SF and then suffered a loss to Switzerland's Jan Hess in the bronze medal game. When you have tasted a world final and come up short, you have this lasting bitter taste left in your mouth and Stopera is going to want to remove that bitter taste this year. The big advantage for Stopera over his fellow Big 4 competitors is he brings back the exact same squad he competed with last year. No new faces. All experience. All chasing revenge.
#TeamUpset
New Zealand (Team Neilson) - Welcome to the world junior ice New Zealand! We have been waiting for your arrival for many years. We have seen the Oceanic country represented at past men's world championships but 2019 marks the debut for their junior men. New Zealand qualified for their first world junior championship through winning the Junior-B competition in Finland last month. This team should come into the competition with some momentum, confidence and enthusiasm to compete. Remember they did not just qualify here, they won the Junior-B title, another first for the nation. Could they make a push for the playoffs? Probably not given the strength and experience of this field. Can they make a push to avoid relegation and dropping back into the B-division for 2020? Most certainly they can! But it won't be easy....welcome to the world ice #TeamKiwi!
What 2 Watch 4 (#W2W4)
Obviously the Big 4 listed above are going to be huge favourites to reach the playoffs. They have all been here before and been successful. They have all had a strong #wct season as well. Last year Whyte went undefeated in the RR. I do not expect a similar undefeated run for any team in this field this year. The competition is just too close and parity is slowly starting to sink in on the international junior field.
The big question will be whether any of the other nations can make a run and knock them off.
If you are looking for a true dark horse with playoff potential, look no further perhaps than Germany's Team Harsch. Skip Klaudius Harsch (who throws vice stones), vice Sixten Totzek (who throws fourth stones) and second Joshua Sutor all return from a 4-5 record last year and one game out of a TB playoff spot. This year they add Magnus Sutor will throw lead stones while last year's lead, Jan Luca Hag, will serve as alternate. The experience of competing and coming oh so close to the playoffs last year could serve as a strong motivator for this team.
Germany certainly seems to be on the up-swing this season with the national men's and women's teams making the playoffs at the European Championships. Oh and who happened to be on that 4th place men's team? Sixten Totzek! Add in his experience and success in Estonia and this team could be the best bet challenger to the Big 4.
Projected Standings: 1. Scotland 2. USA 3. Canada 4. Norway 5. Germany 6. Switzerland 7. New Zealand 8. Sweden 9. China 10. Italy
Relegation: Sweden, China, Italy
Qualifiers: Scotland, USA, Canada, Norway
WJCC Bronze Medal: Scotland (Team Whyte) def. USA (Team Stopera)
WORLD JUNIOR CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP GOLD MEDAL: Canada (Team Tardi) def. Norway (Team Ramsfjell)
WOMEN
#Fav
South Korea (Team Kim) - Can you believe Min-ji Kim is still junior eligible folks? She will be competing in her 4th straight world junior competition. She won a #wct event this season in Sapporo, Japan. She is the current #PACC champion. She has competed in all three legs of the #CurlingWorldCup, finishing runner-up in leg two and winning leg three to book her ticket to the Grand Final at the end of the season. Oh...and she is only 19 years old!! What were you doing when you were 19?? She is the cream of the crop in this year's competition. She has experience. She has the most successful resume. And she has something still to prove at this world championship. At her debut here in 2016 she would win the bronze medal. In 2017, she would reach the playoff round once again but would lose the SF and bronze medal game to finish 4th. Last year she missed the playoffs by one game, finishing with a 4-5 record. In fact, to make matters worse last year, she lost her final RR game to Turkey. It would be Turkey's only win of the competition and they were relegated. The loss knocked Korea out of the TB playoff picture. We saw the common theme of revenge in the men's preview, Kim and her team will have the same mentality this year. Expect a podium from them....and perhaps right at the top.
#Contenders
Canada (Team Sturmay) - Canada always comes into the world junior championships as a contender for the title. And rightfully so. They have won 4 titles in the past 5 years. They have landed on the podium in each of the past 5 years, the only nation to do so. Alberta's Selena Sturmay and her team will be looking to continue the trend as the home favourites in Liverpool. Sturmay was the class of the field at the Canadian championships, riding an undefeated streak through the competition en route to the championship title. She will be coming into the world championships with tremendous confidence and momentum. But, similar to Tardi above, also some pressure as the home nation. Canada's women have not claimed gold on home ice since 1998, failing to do so three times since. Plus Sturmay and most of the team are world championship rookies. The wild card for them might be second Kate Goodhelpsen and alternate Karlee Burgess. Goodhelpsen won a world bronze with Kristen Streifel in 2017 while Burgess is a two-time world champion (2016, 2018) and served as the alternate on the 2017 Streifel team. Sturmay has played in 3 #wct junior events this season, winning one title and reaching another final. The team also will arrive in Liverpool riding a 14-match winning streak.
Norway (Team Ramsfjell) - The new face of Norway junior curling has truly resurrected the junior program back home over the past two years. Maia Ramsfjell will be making her second straight world junior championship after reaching the playoffs last year and losing the bronze medal game to China. When we talk about resurrecting the program, the stats don't lie. Prior to Ramsfjell's appearance at this competition last year, Norway had not qualified a junior women's team into the A-division since 2013. Almost weird to think right? We often consider Norway to be a strong curling nation but the results have mostly been on the men's side. But things are looking up for the women. We saw Team Skaslien win the Euro B-division last November to earn Norway promotion back into the Euro A-division. And now Ramsfjell is back as a contender on the world junior ice looking to elevate Norway into the spotlight. Experience is also a factor on the world junior ice. This field is full of rookie skips and teams so the fact Ramsfjell was here last year, and reached the playoffs, could give her the early rock advantage against most of her competition. Expect a playoff push for this team once again. The team competed at one #wct junior event (Glasgow, Scotland), reaching the championship final before falling to fellow #WJCC2019 competitor Team Davie from Scotland.
#TeamUpset
Switzerland (Team Keiser) - Raphaela Keiser may be making her debut on the world championship ice but do not underestimate her. Keiser has been playing a ton of #wct women's events this season, 5 to be exact. And while they have failed to qualify in each they do own a respectable 10-14 record on the women's tour. On the junior tour, they played one event and went 3-4 losing the consolation final. From a junior perspective, this team has played a ton of events this season and against some very formidable competition. The experience of playing #wct events should help them read the ice and the rocks on the world ice. They have also added 2017 and 2018 Swiss junior champ Selina Witschonke as their alternate, who joined the team after finishing third at the recent Swiss Nationals.
Sweden (Team Sundberg) - Perhaps the ultimate underdog rookie story in the field could come from the traditional curling powerhouse nation of Sweden and junior champ skip Tova Sundberg. Sundberg has not competed in any junior tour events this season; however, she has competed in 4 women's events. The team has a record of 10-11 on tour, won a #wct title in Finland back in October and reached another SF a few weeks ago in Glasgow, Scotland. When past junior powerhouse Isabella Wrana aged out of the junior ranks we were wondering who would be ready to step up and fill the shoes of Swedish junior curling. Welcome Tova Sundberg to the world championship stage folks! This team could surprise many and make a deep playoff run here. She does have a big slider to fill though after Wrana won the world championship in 2017 and reached the final last year. BUT she has experience with her from the old Team Wrana as Almida De Val throws 4th stones for this team (threw second for Team Wrana) and Jennie Wahlin throws second (threw vice for Wrana). Special trivia tidbit for you. Name a player who participated in 4 international championship events last season? If you said Wahlin, you would be correct! She participated in the European, World Women's, World Junior and Olympic Games in 2018. WOW!
What 2 Watch 4 (#W2W4)
What will we see out of the B-division qualifiers here? Scotland, Russia and Japan are all looking to avoid relegation this year and make a run at the playoffs. As mentioned above, this field is fairly wide open and any of these three teams could make deep runs here.
Last year Scotland and Russia were relegated (alongside Turkey) but they won their way back into the A-division after winning gold and silver in Finland at the B-division competition last month. For Russia, Vlada Rumiantseva returns for her second world junior competition. Last year's 3-6 record was a disappointing setback for Russia, especially for a nation who has seen their women's curling teams excel at the highest level the past few years.
As for Scotland, Lisa Davie is tasked with ensuring last year's slip-up from Rebecca Morrison doesn't happen again. If Russian curling fans were shocked and disappointed last year, imagine who Scottish curling fans felt. They were the home nation. They were coming off a silver medal performance in 2017. But alas the joys and pitfalls of junior curling folks. This is why the #growthesport movement is so important. Players will age out of juniors but you want to ensure you have strong up and comers to fill the shoes. It is interesting to note, the Scottish team competing in Liverpool is not the same team who won the spot for Scotland in Finland. To Davie's credit, she does have a junior title under her belt this season.
The battle for the playoffs is going to be close. The battle to avoid relegation might be even closer.
Projected Standings: 1. South Korea 2. Canada 3. Sweden 4. Norway 5. Switzerland 6. Scotland 7. Russia 8. China 9. USA 10. Japan
Relegation: China, USA, Japan
Qualifiers: South Korea, Canada, Sweden, Norway
WJCC Bronze Medal: Norway (Team Ramsfjell) def. Canada (Team Sturmay)
WORLD JUNIOR CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP GOLD MEDAL: Korea (Team Kim) def. Sweden (Team Sundberg)
What say you rock heads? Agree with the predictions? Who are your picks to take home world championship gold in Liverpool? And do you think we could see a few surprise teams along the way? Share your thoughts on social media and remember to use the hashtag #WJCC2019. And you can catch live action on the ice by checking out the World Curling Federation's YouTube channel.
Don't forget we also have the Scotties Tournament of Hearts going on just down the road from Liverpool in Sydney, Nova Scotia as we prepare to crown the Canadian women's champion. ICYMI check out the #STOH2019 Preview with Special Guest Michelle Englot!
#StayTuned
With the #WJCC2019 and #STOH2019 being week-long events, next week the blog will bring you the annual mid-week scorecard. Who is excelling? Who is disappointing? Who is making the grade and who has some work to do? The mid-week report card will be sliding from my hack into your house next week.
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