| Ford World Men's Curling Championships starts Saturday in Edmonton |
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 The 2007 Ford World Men's Curling Championship starts Saturday at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Canada, as 12 countries begin the nine-day battle for global honours.It's the 13th year of Ford of Canada's sponsorship of a world championship, and the third consecutive year that the men's and women's championships have been conducted separately, after being combined from 1989-2004. Kelly Scott of Canada won last week's 2007 World Women's Championship in Aomori, Japan, with an 8-4 final-game victory of Denmark's Angelina Jensen. The Edmonton lineup features teams from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Korea, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Organizers recently announced that more than 160,000 tickets have already been sold, a record for a men's event which eclipses the 153,571 fans who attended the 2003 Ford World Men's and Women's Curling Championships in Winnipeg. The 12 teams play a round robin leading to the "Page Playoffs", whereby the first and second place teams meet in one game, with the winner advancing directly to the gold medal final on Sunday, April, 8 while the loser goes to Saturday's semi-final (bronze medal game). The third and fourth place teams also meet, with the winner advancing to the semi-final while the loser is eliminated. Canada's Glenn Howard, winner of the Tim Hortons Brier (Canadian men's championship) earlier this month, will be seeking a leading 30th title for Canada since the men's championship began in 1959. The last time Canada won men's and women's titles in the same year was in 2000 in Glasgow, when British Columbia's Kelley Law and Greg McAulay were declared champions. Howard is trying to win a third world title himself, after playing third for brother Russ Howard when capturing the 1987 and 1993 Worlds, in Vancouver and Geneva, respectively. Howard won his first Canadian men's curling championship, ironically, in Edmonton, in 1987. Canadian third Richard Hart won an Olympic silver medal at Nagano in 1998, while front-enders Brent Laing and Craig Savill are two time world junior champions (1998 and 1999).  Markku Uusipaavalniemi, making his 11th Worlds appearance, won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino (Pinerolo), losing the final to Canada's Russ Howard (Brad Gushue). His best finishes at previous Worlds were bronze medals in 1998 and 2000, and he's won a total of 51 games at the Worlds, second only to Norway's Eigil Ramsfjell, with 63. Uusipaavalniemi, widely known as either M-15 or U-15, continues to ride a wave of popularity in at home, and was recently elected to Finland's parliament. Sweden's three-time world champion Peja Lindholm is returning to the world championship for the first time since 2004. Lindholm has a new team this year, although his alternate player is long-time teammate Magnus Swartling. He won world titles, as skip, in 1997 in Berne, 2001 in Lausanne and 2004 on home ice in Gävle. Lindholm's new third is James Dryburgh, a two-time world junior champion in 1991 and 1996 representing Scotland, who is now married and living in Sweden. Scotland skip Warwick Smith is a two-time world champion, when he played third for Hammy McMillan in 1999 in Saint John, New Brunswick and last year, when playing second for David Murdoch in Lowell, Massachusetts. The second for Scotland is David Smith, who skipped his team to a 1991 Worlds win over Canada's Kevin Martin in Winnipeg, and also finished runner-up to Canada's Ed Lukowich in 1986.Switzerland's Ralph Stöckli earned a silver medal at the 2003 Ford Worlds in Winnipeg, losing to Canada's Randy Ferbey in the final, and also skipped the Swiss Olympic team in Pinerolo last February. Playing second for Stöckli is Markus Eggler, who skipped Switzerland to a 1992 world men's title in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Alternate Andi Schwaller has competed in three world championships and won bronze at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and recently teamed with Stöckli to win gold at December's Le Gruyère European Championships. Germany's Andy Kapp won a world men's silver medal in 1997 and also has three bronze medals, in 1994, 1995 and 2005. He also won two European Championships, in 1992 and 1997. Norway's Thomas Ulsrud scored a bronze medal in Lowell last year. The heir apparent to Norwegian legend Pål Trulsen, who has announced his international retirement, Ulsrud also captured bronze at the 2002 European Championship.  Completing the field are Australia's Hugh Millikin, who will be making his 10th Worlds appearance, Denmark's Johnny Frederiksen, France's Thomas Dufour, Korea's Je-Ho Lee and Todd Birr of the United States.WCTV, the television arm of the World Curling Federation, will provide daily game feeds and highlight packages to a variety of international networks including Eurosport International, Eurosport Asia and Eurosport France, ZDF (Germany), Sf-DRS, TSR and TSI (Switzerland), NHK (Japan), RFO (French overseas), CSTV (United States) and TransWorld Sport, plus agencies Reuters and SNTV and broadcast unions EBU and ABU. For inquiries, please contact Joanna Kelly or Sylvie Aubrit at +1-780-474-0217. In Canada, The Sports Network (TSN) will televise all games involving Canada, throughout the round robin, as well as the Page Playoffs on Friday, April 6. Canada's CBC-TV will carry the semi-final on Saturday, April 7 at 10:30am MT (12:30pm ET) and final on Sunday, April 8 at 11:30am MT (1:30pm ET). In addition, two internet webstreaming portals will carry live game coverage. CurlTV (www.curltv.com) is webcasting non-Canadian round-robin games daily to its subscribers, plus all playoff games, while NBCSports.com (http://NBCSports.MediaZone.com) will webstream over 20 live games, including all playoff and medal-round matches. The Opening Ceremonies take place at 10:30 am Saturday morning, prior to the first draw at 12:30pm MT. Draw results will be available on the World Curling Federation (www.worldcurling.org) and Canadian Curling Association (www.curling.ca) websites. Canada has hosted 18 men's world curling championships, including 2007. This will mark the first time that Edmonton has staged a men's world championship. Edmonton could also establish a single draw record for a world championship, possibly exceeding the 12,123 fans that attended the men's semi-finals in Berne in 1974. Winnipeg currently holds the Arena attendance record for the men's and women's world championships, 248,243, set in 1991. |
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WCF RANKED TOP 5 (M) | ||
| # | Team | Points |
| 1 | Canada | 1038 |
| 2 | Scotland | 724 |
| 3 | Norway | 639 |
| 4 | U.S.A. | 636 |
| 5 | Germany | 542 |
WCF RANKED TOP 5 (W) | ||
| # | Team | Points |
| 1 | Canada | 928 |
| 2 | Sweden | 795 |
| 3 | Switzerland | 672 |
| 4 | U.S.A. | 615 |
| 5 | Denmark | 521 |
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