Mixed incentive looms large for Canadian curling combo
Pair shoots for world title, Olympics berth
• Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg will most certainly be feeling the weight of a nation when he and his partner Joanne Courtney of Edmonton compete in the world mixed doubles curling championship April 22-29 in Lethbridge, Alta.
The veteran Winnipeg curler and former men’s world champion (with the Jeff Stoughton rink) has played in many high- stakes games in his career but this will be a whole new kind of pressure.
You see, Carruthers and Courtney now have the responsibility of not only trying to win a world title for Canada, but making sure they finish high enough to even guarantee the country a spot in the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
“We’re told we need to finish at least fifth or better at the world championships,” Carruthers said Monday, a day after he and Courtney won the Canadian mixed doubles championship in Saskatoon.
“Definitely carrying pressure, but we’re excited about it.
“At the start of the week when we started into nationals, I was well aware of what the scenario would be if we won. I almost thought of it as something that would be a huge honour for our team if we happened to win — to carry that pressure and get the job done for Canada.”
Carruthers and Courtney beat John Morris and Rachel Homan 9- 6 in an extra end Sunday to win the Canadian championship.
Courtney, from Edmonton, is already a world champion this year, having played second for Homan en route to Canadian and world gold medals.
She and Carruthers will look to add to that haul at the world mixed doubles championship April 22-29 in Lethbridge, Alta. “Definitely taking it seriously,” said Carruthers.
Carruthers and Courtney have now qualified for the Canadian Olympic trials next year — if there are any Canadian trials. They will be held in Portage la Prairie next January, if Carruthers and Courtney finish at least fifth at the worlds this month.
Both Carruthers and Courtney are already qualif i ed f or t he men’s and women’s Olympic trials in Ottawa next December. If either of them win there, they will not be eligible to compete in the mixed doubles trials.
“I’m definitely shooting 100 per cent for my men’s team,” Carruthers said. “If it turns out that ( Team Homan) wins and we don’t or vice- versa, we’re obviously going to be happy for each other.
“If we both happen to lose, then we have this to fall back on as definitely an option and something that would be incredible, to represent Canada at the Olympics.”
Amazingly, Carruthers did not compete in a single mixed doubles tournament this year prior to the Canadian championship after playing in three tournaments last year.
“I had a really busy schedule with my men’s team and Joanne had a really busy schedule with her women’s team,” he said.
“It didn’t work out for us to play any more tournaments this year, but we were working really hard at throwing the rock similarly with both our men’s and women’s teams, and I think that really helped us win the championship this week.”
Even the world mixed doubles championship format will be something completely new to Carruthers and Courtney, with 39 teams in divided into five pools and 16 advancing to the playoff round after round robin play.
It won’t be easy to secure a spot in the top five. Canada’s Marliese Kasner and Dustin Kalthoff finished fifth last year in Sweden.
But Carruthers has a lot of faith in his team and his teammate, whom he calls ‘ The Skipper.’
“There’s only five rocks thrown and normally I’m used to throwing the last two on my men’s team, but in mixed doubles in Canada, a lot of the teams are having the guys throw the second, third and fourth rocks and the ladies are throwing one and five,” Carruthers said.
“It’s almost more of a skiplike position for Joanne to be throwing the last rock. For me, I’m throwing the middle three. She made a lot of really of really good shots with her last one, including some doubles and some nice tapbacks to secure some points for us.”