The World Curling Federation announced today that Cortina D'Ampezzo in northern Italy has been awarded hosting rights for the 2010 World Men's Curling Championship.

"This is a special day for world curling," said Les Harrison, WCF President. "The world men's curling championship, in an Olympic year, will be contested at the fabled home of the 1956 Olympic Winter Games."

The 4,000 seat arena, built for Italy's first-ever winter games, is being rebuilt.

"In Cortina curling is very, very popular," said Luigi Alvera, president of GIS-Cortina Sports Facilities Management. "Cortina is actually the cradle of curling in Italy. It is people from Cortina that brought curling into Italy.

"After the Olympics, curling spread all over Italy - mainly northern Italy of course - because we have ice facilities."

"We had two excellent bids," said Harrison, giving a nod to Hamburg, Germany, which was also in the running to host the 2010 championship.

"We were very impressed with both bids, and the decision of our executive board was extremely difficult," continued Harrison.

"I would not hesitate to invite Hamburg to submit another bid for a championship, no question."

The announcement caps a string of impressive hosting victories for Italy. In addition to hosting the 2006 Olympic Winter Games (Pinerolo), Italy has played host to two Winter Universiades (Claut 2002 and Pinerolo 2007), the 2003 Le Gruyère European Championships (Courmayeur), the 2006 European Mixed Championship (Claut) and the 2005 World Junior Championships (Pinerolo).

The 2008 Ford World Men's Curling Championship is slated for Grand Forks, North Dakota, with a decision on the Canadian host of the 2009 Worlds to come in the next few months.