Curling: U.S. skip chasing title at home

NORTH BAY, ONT.— American skip Jamie Sinclair feels quite at home at the world women’s curling championship in North Bay. Her Canadian curling roots run deep.

Sinclair grew up near Ottawa and teamed with Rachel Homan to win the 2007 Canada Winter Games title.

She won Canadian junior bronze in 2013 and skipped Carleton to a national university title in 2014.

A dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, Sinclair moved to the United States for the last Olympic quadrennial.

“I figured it was an opportunity to play on a fully funded team and play on the World Curling Tour,” Sinclair said. “An opportunity to compete on a higher level. It was too good to turn down.”

It appears to have been a good call. Sinclair has won two straight U.S. titles and is making her world championship debut this week with third Alex Carlson, second Vicky Persinger and lead Monica Walker.

They topped Scotland’s Hannah Fleming 8-6 on Sunday afternoon to improve to 2-1 in round-robin play.

“It’s a nice position for the opening weekend,” said USA Curling high-performance director Derek Brown.

Russia’s Victoria Moiseeva, Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg of Sweden and Canada’s Jennifer Jones shared first place at 3-0. Japan’s Tori Koana and South Korea’s EunJung Kim were at 2-0 entering their late games.

Jones defeated Germany’s Daniela Jentsch 8-1 in the evening draw.

The Winnipeg skip has played only 23 ends over her first three games.

“It is nice to have a couple of short games and try to get as much rest as you can,” Jones said.