Locals in four-way deadlock for first spot at championship
Canada is in a four-way tie for first place at 3-0 after the opening two days of the 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship at Gangneung Curling Centre in South Korea.
Featuring Dunsford’s Jon Thurston throwing skip rocks and Bobcaygeon’s Chrissy Molnar as alternate, Canada kicked things off with a 9-6 win over host Korea on Saturday and followed that up by beating Slovakia, 6-4, and Italy, 8-3, on Sunday. Canada was tied with defending champion China, Latvia and Norway atop the standings at 3-0 and was scheduled to play Monday against China.
Canada is pursuing a fourth world title. This year’s Canadian crew consists of skip (lead rocks) Mark Ideson (London, Ont.), fourth Thurston, third Ina Forrest (Spallumcheen, B.C.), second Gilbert Dash (Wolseley, Sask.), Molnar, head coach Mick Lizmore and team leader Kyle Paquette.
Forrest and Ideson are no strangers to the world stage, having replayed presented their country at the worlds every year since 2008 and ’13, respectively. The last time the two competed at this venue was during PyeongChang 2018 when they took Paralympic bronze.
Thurston, who made his world championship debut in 2019, returns to Team Canada for a sixth time, fifth as last-rock thrower. As for Dash, this is only his second time at the worlds, but he already has a silver medal from last year’s championship on his resumé. And new to the team is Molnar, a National Program athlete who is representing Canada for the first time in international competition. The team has a combined 271 games in world championships under its belt.
Canada is hoping for another solid performance following its silvermedal finish last year in Richmond, B.C. Meanwhile, Team China, skipped by Wang Haitao, looks to win its third consecutive world title. Team Scotland, skipped by Hugh Nibloe, took bronze in 2023 and leads all countries for most World Wheelchair Curling Championship medals with eight.
Estonia, Italy and Slovakia qualified for the event as a result of their podium finishes at the 2023 World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship last November.
The 12-team round robin continues until Thursday. The top six teams from the round robin advance to the playoffs, with the top two receiving a bye to the semifinals. The gold- and bronze-medal games will take place Friday.