Chinese curling teams slide through St. Catharines
Under-21 teams warm up for worlds by playing Brock in exhibition games
Chinese-Canadian relations were a little icy this weekend, but in a good way.
The Brock University men’s and women’s under-21 curling teams took to the ice Sunday at
St. Catharines Golf and Country Club to face off against their Chinese national team counterparts.
The Chinese junior teams are in Canada gearing up for the world junior curling championships in Nova Scotia this month and came to St. Catharines for a tune-up exhibition game against the Brock teams.
“We’re hopeful we’ll be pretty
competitive,” said first-year coach Perry Marshall.
They arrived in Canada on Feb. 2. Marshall said they were looking for some competitive teams to play, a not-so-easy task at this time of year as many curlers in Canada are competing in various playdown bonspiels.
Marshall took on the Team China coaching job as a chance to coach at a different level. He also heads the Ryerson University curling program, which is how he connected with Brock, and is now part of the continually evolving Chinese curling program.
“(Chinese curling) has been on the scene for a while,” he said.
China made a push to develop its curling program leading up to the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the women’s team won the 2009 world championships.
“They’re growing both in recreation and competitive curling,” Marshall said.
For the Brock team, head coach Murray Etherington said the exhibition games were a good tune-up of their own, ahead of the Ontario University Athletics championships this week.
Brock teams warmed up by playing in two bonspiels.
Sunday’s games against China not only gave Brock the chance to face a strong opponent, but an opportunity to try a few new things, Etherington said.
“We feel we should be in contention for medals,” he said about the upcoming provincial championships.
Etherington took the Brock women’s team to a bonspiel in China a few years ago, and the coach said it’s great to see the growth of curling in China.
“The more we can develop curling worldwide, the better it is for the sport,” he said.