Quebec alone on top

Quebec’s Benoit Lessard won two more games on Thursday to take over first place at the 2015 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship in Boucherville, Que. Lessard, the 2013 gold medallist, and his team of Carl Marquis, Johanne Daly, Christine Lavallée and coach Germain Tremblay stole three points in the sixth end on the way to a 10-2 win over Alberta’s Don Kuchelyma on Thursday morning and followed with an 8-5 win over Northern Ontario’s Wayne Ficek in the afternoon. Quebec finished the day with a 6-1 record at the top of the standings. BC’s Gerry Austgarden, with his team of Darryl Neighbour, Frank Labounty, Alison Duddy and coach Brad Burton, is right behind after battling to an extra-end 9-8 victory over Newfoundland and Labrador’s Joanne MacDonald on Thursday morning, and then losing to Ontario’s Chris Rees, 7-3, in the afternoon draw. Tied with BC in second place is Manitoba’s Dennis Thiessen, the 2014 champion, who began the day with a strong 7-3 win over Northern Ontario and continued with a 9-3 win over Newfoundland and Labrador’s MacDonald. Ontario’s Rees and Saskatchewan’s Darwin Bender are also chasing the leaders. Both teams split their games on Thursday and finished the day with matching 4-3 records. The battle for playoff positions continues on Friday, the last day of the round robin, with games at 10 a.m. ET and 3 p.m. ET. If a tie-breaker is necessary, it will take place at 8 p.m. ET. Ten teams, representing nine provinces plus Northern Ontario, will play the round robin from April 27 to Friday, May 1, followed by the Page playoff games (1 vs 2, 3 vs 4) on Saturday. The semifinal (loser of 1-2 vs winner of 3-4) goes Sunday, May 3, at 10 a.m., with the championship final scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET. Selected games are being livestreamed on the Wheelchair Curling Blog at www.wcblog2.com/ For scores and standings, visit Curling Canada’s live scoring at https://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/#/competitions/1654-2015-canadian-wheelchair-curling-championship/scoreboard For results and team information, visit the event website at https://www.curling.ca/2015wheelchair/