ROCKY START FOR CANADIAN JUNIORS

BOTH CANADIAN TEAMS DROP OPENING MATCH AT JUNIOR WORLDS IN ITALY 

Canada’s run at the World Junior Curling Championships got off to a rocky start Saturday as both the men’s and women’s teams dropped their opening games. 

The women, skipped by Allyson MacNutt, lost a back-and-forth matchup with Switzerland by a score of 8-7. Although they held the lead heading into the tenth end, the Swiss (skipped by Arian Oberson) manufactured a deuce, and took the win. 

The Halifax Curling Club (MacNutt, Maria Fitzgerald, Alison Umlah, and Grace McCusker) squad will look to recover on Sunday with another single-game day vs. Japan. 

In the afternoon draw, the men’s team – skipped by Kenan Wipf – got down early to Denmark. The Alberta based squad trailed 3-0 after two ends, before tying the game in the third with a score of three. Unfortunately for Canada, the Danes struck back with a three-ender of their own, and added four more in the fifth. 

“It’s not quite the result we hoped for” said Canadian lead Max Cinnamon. “But it was a good learning experience for a nice bounce back tomorrow.” 

Wipf, Cinnamon, along with teammates Ky Macauley and Michael Keenan will face Korea and the United States on Sunday. 

“The experience was good,” said Cinnamon. “It was fun to be out on the world stage for the first time.” 

Both Canadian teams won the right to represent Canada last winter in Fort McMurray, Alta. They had more than a full year to prepare for the trip to Cortina, Italy – where the championship is being used as a test event for next year’s Olympic Games. 

Each team will play a nine-game round robin before the top four seeds will advance to the playoffs.  

For scores and schedules, visit the World Curling site here: https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wjcc/default  

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