Jones favoured to repeat at Scotties

Team Canada skip faces seasoned teams and new faces in Canadian championship

— Who can topple the giant at the Canadian women’s curling championship?

The team considered the greatest threat to Jennifer Jones’s bid for a second straight national title, and the sixth of the skip’s career, did not make it to this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Rachel Homan was upset in the Ontario provincial final by Jenn Hanna, who returns to the Scotties 11 years after losing to Jones in a dramatic final.

The field for the 2016 Canadian women’s championship is a mix of seasoned teams and new faces. The main draw starts Saturday at the 3,200-seat Revolution Place.

The top four teams among the 12 at the conclusion of the preliminary round advance to playoffs.

Alberta’s Chelsea Carey, Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville and Quebec’s Marie-France Larouche are Jones’s main challengers in Grande Prairie.

The three teams have previous big-game experience and at the Scotties and in other major events such as the Olympic trials.

Jones’s Winnipeg team knows how to ride out the highs and lows of a long week and peak for when it really counts.

“We really try to focus on never losing back-to-back games and if you do that you’re in pretty good shape,” Jennifer Jones said.

“You just want to make it into the playoffs. It doesn’t matter how you get it, or where you are ranked getting in, you want to get into the playoffs and start fresh from there.”

The winner of the Feb. 28 final represents Canada at the women’s world curling championship March 19-27 in Swift Current, Sask.