VERNON – The 2008 Ford World Women's Curling Championship gets underway this Saturday in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada.

Twelve countries will battle for the world title from March 22-30 at the Greater Vernon Multiplex. The teams play a round robin, concluding on Thursday, March 27, followed by the Page Playoffs, leading to the final on Sunday, March 30.

Representing the host country Canada is the Jennifer Jones team. Jones is making her second world women's appearance, after finishing fourth behind Sweden's Anette Norberg in 2005 in Paisley, Scotland.

Canada has won a leading 14 women's titles since 1979, the latest by Kelly Scott in 2007 in Aomori, Japan.

Debbie McCormick, who won the 2003 Ford Worlds in Winnipeg, will try to give the United States a second world women's crown. McCormick was also the runner-up in 2006 in Grande Prairie, Alberta, losing the final to Norberg.

Switzerland's Mirjam Ott, an Olympic silver medallist in both 2002 and 2006, will make her third appearance at the worlds, seeking a third title for her country, but first since 1983.

Russia's 21-year-old Liudmila Privivkova, the 2006 world junior and Le Gruyère European champion, also makes her third worlds appearance. Earlier this month Privivkova finished fourth while competing in her sixth World Juniors in Ostersund, Sweden.

Last year's world women's runner-up, Denmark's Angelina Jensen, won tough battle in her home country to qualify again for the worlds.

Germany's Andrea Schoepp, the 1988 world champion, makes her 15th appearance, second only to appearance record-holder Dordi Nordby of Norway. Two years ago, Schoepp finished fourth in Grande Prairie. Schoepp, who also stands second to Nordby's 111 world game wins, with 82, is a six-time European champion.

Sweden will be represented by 22-year-old skip Stina Viktorsson, who upset Norberg in the national championship final. Sweden has won seven world women's titles, behind only Canada.

Completing the line-up are China (skipped by Bingyu Wang), Czech Republic (Katerina Urbanova), Italy (Diana Gaspari), Japan (Moe Meguro) and Scotland (Gail Munro).

Qualifying points for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver are also on the line, on a sliding scale from 14 to the winner, 12 to second, 10 to third, down to one point for last place. The current Olympic and Paralympic Qualifying Points list is available at www.worldcurling.org ("Rankings").

There will be extensive national and international television coverage of the Ford World Women's Curling Championship.

WCTV, the television arm of the World Curling Federation, will provide multi-game coverage throughout the week for channels outside Canada, including the multilingual sports channel, Eurosport. Working in collaboration with Japanese broadcaster NHK, WCTV will also produce comprehensive coverage of Japanese games to be aired throughout the championship in Japan. In addition, WCTV will produce a daily highlights package for worldwide distribution.

Canada's TSN will carry all round robin games involving Canada, followed by the Page Playoffs on Friday, March 28. The Page system matches 1 vs 2 and 3 vs 4.  The winner of 1 vs 2 advances directly to Sunday's final while the loser goes to Saturday's semifinal. The winner of 3 vs 4 also goes to the semifinal.

Resurrected this year, after a three-year absence, is the bronze medal game, which will be contested Saturday evening at 6:00 pm PT, featuring the semifinal loser against the loser of the Page 3 vs 4 game.

Canada's CBC-TV will televise the semi-final on Saturday, March 29 at 11:30 am PT/2:30 pm ET and the final (gold medal game) on Sunday, March 30 at 10:30am PT/1:30 pm ET. CurlTV (www.curltv.com) will also provide draw coverage to its subscribers.

Results of the 2008 Ford World Women's Curling championship will be available on the Canadian Curling Association (www.curling.ca) and World Curling Federation (www.worldcurling.org) websites.

The Opening Ceremonies begin at 11:00 am Saturday in the 3,000-seat Multiplex, with the first draw at 1:00 pm PT/4:00 pm ET.

This marks the fourth consecutive year that the women's and men's world championships are being held in different venues, as they were from 1979-1988. In 1989 in Milwaukee, the men's and women's championships were staged jointly and remained so through 2004.

Since then, Canada has alternately hosted a men's and women's world championship under the Ford banner, now in its 14th year of event title sponsorship. Last year, the Ford World Men's was held in Edmonton and won by Canada's Glenn Howard. This year's 2008 World Men's Curling Championship is in Grand Forks, North Dakota, April 5-13 (www.worldmenscurling2008.com).