Curling champs backon

The women’s World Curling Championships has been reinstated to the 2021 calendar.

And that means Perthshire’s Eve Muirhead will be flying the flag for Scotland at the WinSport Arena in Calgary, Canada.

The competition was added to an array of events taking place over a three month period under strict bubble conditions, designed to maximise protection from the coronavirus for athletes and officials.

Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Lauren Gray will compete at the worlds from April 30 to May 9.

The event doubles as an Olympic qualifying competition, with the top six teams guaranteeing themselves a place in Beijing next year.

“It’s really exciting,” said Muirhead, who is from Blair Atholl.

“The thought of being out there in Calgary in a bubble can be a little bit daunting I guess, knowing you’re going nowhere apart from your hotel room, the hire car and the arena.

“But if someone said to me any time over the past few months that I had the chance to do this I’d have jumped at the opportunity.

“We’re just so grateful that we get the chance to compete. So many times during the year there have been dark moments and we never knew what was going to happen.

“For Curling Canada and the World Curling Federation to be able to put this together has been fantastic and very good for the curling world.”

Muirhead is making a welcome return to the World Championships and is hungry for more success.

The 30-year-old said:“Having won eight Scottish titles but not been to a Worlds for four years sounds a bit strange.

“For me this is why I curl, to play in World Championships and do well on that international stage.

So, to get a chance in this very different year to manage to compete at international level with Scotland on your back is something to be very grateful for.

“I think we’ve got a very good opportunity ahead of us and we’ve had fantastic preparation here at the National Curling Academy (NCA) leading into this World Championships.

“As a team we’ve been very patient and very diligent with our training, knowing that something like this could happen and that we need to be ready for a competition at short notice.

“As a team I think we are better than we were last year and we’ve worked on aspects of our game that we knew we needed to improve.

“We’re going to the World Championships in good form and personally, the break from travel and constant competition has been really good for me.”