Homan shifts her focus to mixed doubles

SASKATOON She flew across the globe, won a world title, flew back, and caught her breath for a few days. Then Rachel Homan kept right on curling.

She’s in Saskatoon, playing with John Morris at this week’s Canadian mixed doubles championship, and they’re tearing it up — 5-0 before their Friday night game after a 9-2 afternoon thrashing of Jill Officer and Pat Simmons.

“You don’t get over it overnight, that’s for sure,” says Homan, whose quartet won the world women’s title March 26 in China. “Fourteen hours is a long transition. It’s been a challenge. But every day, I get more and more adjusted.”

Morris figured her game wouldn’t suffer, even while making the shift from the four-player game to the two-player hybrid.

“Rachel and I are very similar that way,” Morris said Friday. “She’s not 100 per cent as far as fatigue and everything is concerned, but she’s a competitor. That’s why we work so well together. We hate to lose.”

Homan, who turned 28 Wednesday, notes the importance of this event in beefing up Canada’s world ranking in mixed doubles, which makes its Olympic debut in 2018.

Canadians have just one medal, bronze in 2009, out of nine world championships. Canada was fifth last year. The top seven countries, using combined totals from the 2016 and 2017 worlds, advance to the 2018 Olympics.

This week’s winner advances to worlds April 22-29 in Lethbridge, Alta., but there’s a complicating factor: The World Curling Tour has its $100,000 Humpty’s Champions Cup that same week in Calgary. Last year, the top two teams at nationals chose the Grand Slam over mixed doubles worlds.

Homan and Morris are both noncommittal about what they’d do if they win the Canadian title.

“We’ll deal with that if it comes to it,” Homan said. “But it’s not on our radar right now.”