Winners in Ottawa!

Newfoundland & Labrador #1 and Manitoba take top honours at 2024 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships

Several young athletes made their dreams of becoming a Canadian champion a reality on Saturday at the RA Centre in Ottawa, as the hard-earned hardware was distributed to the winners at the 2024 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships. 

In male play, Team Newfoundland & Labrador #1, comprising skip Simon Perry, third Nicholas Codner, second/vice-skip Brayden Snow, lead Carter Holden and coach Glenn Goss, hailing from the RE/MAX Centre – St. John’s Curling Club, defeated Team Saskatchewan’s Dylan Derksen (7-2; Martensville) 5-4 to claim the gold medal.  

“It feels real nice,” said Perry about becoming a Canadian champion. “It’s been a long time in the making. It’s our third time here but, you know, it feels really good.” 

The biggest blow of the spirited final came in the fourth end where a missed freeze attempt on Team Saskatchewan’s final stone wicked off its intended target, giving Team Newfoundland & Labrador #1 a quiet hit for three and a 3-1 lead. 

It’s an opportunity that Perry himself didn’t see coming. 

“Oh my gosh, no,” Perry said of the chance to score three. “But, you know, we make our shots and capitalize when we get them. It’s curling, stuff happens. You get one shot and it can make a difference.” 

Team Saskatchewan would then counter with all-out aggression in the sixth end, where it was set up to surrender a blank end but, instead, elected to go hard for a steal with a draw around a long guard with skip Derksen’s final stone.  

The draw would end up over-curling and poking out the other side of the guard, allowing Team Newfoundland & Labrador #1 to quietly come around and hit for two, marking a 5-2 lead. 

Though the plan didn’t work out for Team Saskatchewan, Perry agreed that Dersken had made the correct decision to go hard in the sixth. 

“They play aggressively,” said Perry. “Especially with the double center-line guard call. It’s good to never back down in a final.” 

Team Newfoundland & Labrador #1 would surrender a single in the seventh before making a double on Perry’s final stone in the eighth end to secure the 5-4 win. 

Perry has yet to make it home for a rest after representing Canada in mixed doubles at the 2024 Youth Olympics at Gangwon, South Korea, where he and his partner Cailey Locke finished with a 3-2 record, just missing the playoffs. 

For Perry, this Canadian Under-18 Gold Medal is the redemption he was seeking. 

“I look at the boys and I said ‘Boys, we’d better come home with a medal from this because I need it,’” Perry said. 

The win marks Newfoundland & Labrador’s first medal at the Canadian Under-18 Championships in either male or female play since the event’s inception in 2017.  

In female gold medal play, Manitoba’s Shaela Hayward championed her Carman Curling Club rink, rounded out by vice-skip Keira Krahn, second India Young, lead Rylie Cox and coach Diane Hayward, to an 8-5 win in the final over Québec #1’s Jolianne Fortin (7-3; Saguenay). 

The team, made up entirely of national championship rookies, compiled an 8-2 record, including four consecutive playoff wins to capture the Under-18 female crown. 

“I never ever would have thought we’d be able to do this with this team,” Hayward said. “I’m at a loss for words. It actually hasn’t hit me yet and I don’t know if it ever will.” 

The Manitobans scored early and often, jumping out to a 7-2 lead after just three ends of play by way of a three in the first end with hammer, followed by a four in the third.  

“We got the early lead, which is great,” Hayward said. “But Québec is a great team and we knew we had to keep it up. We were a little shaky here and there and almost gave up a bit, but we hung in there and kept making shots.” 

Québec was not without opportunities to score big points in the match and make a comeback. A double take-out opportunity for four points presented itself to Fortin in the fourth, but Fortin’s double attempt would jam and mark a single point for Québec. 

“I was so nervous after that one,” Hayward said. “We got a break, and you don’t get those often against a great team like that, but we were grateful for the break and knew we had to hang in there.” 

It’s as close as Team Québec #1 would get as keen defence and routine shot-making from Manitoba would eventually run its opponents out of rocks in the eighth, securing the 8-5 win. 

The win marks Manitoba’s first-ever medal in Canadian Under-18 Curling Championship female play. 

In bronze medal matches, Team Nova Scotia’s Zach Atherton (8-2; Chester/Halifax) defeated Québec #1’s Raphaël Tremblay (6-4; Grand-Mère) in male play while Ontario #2’s Ava Acres (7-2; Ottawa) secured the bronze in female play with a 6-5 win over Nova Scotia #1’s Rebecca Regan (7-2; Lower Sackville).  

Archived matches of the 2024 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships will be available on Curling Canada’s streaming platform, Curling Canada +.    

Archived scores, rosters and standings for the 2024 Canadian U-18 Curling Championships are available at curling.ca/scoreboard.     

This story will be available in French as soon as is possible here.