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 GRAND FORKS, ND – The 2008 World Men’s Curling Championship starts Saturday at the magnificent Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota, as 12 countries begin the nine-day battle for global honours.
This is the third consecutive year that the men’s and women’s championships have been conducted separately, after being combined from 1989-2004. It’s also the second time this century that the U.S. state of North Dakota has hosted a world curling championship, following the 2002 Ford Worlds in Bismarck, where Canada (men) and Scotland (women) won gold.
Australia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States are set to “Rock the Ralph.” 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 13 while the loser goes to Saturday’s semi-final. The third and fourth place teams also meet, with the winner advancing to the semi-final while the loser drops to the bronze-medal match.
Canada’s Kevin Martin will be seeking a leading 31st title for Canada since the men’s championship began in 1959. The Ford World Women’s Curling Championship concluded on Sunday in Vernon, Canada with the host nation’s Jennifer Jones capturing a leading 15th title for her country. Martin, who is competing in his third world shootout but first since 1997, will be looking to repeat Canada’s double gold performance at last year’s Worlds, where Kelly Scott and Glenn Howard were successful.
Martin, who at 41 is one of the most feared money players in history, is in the second year of a new team lineup featuring youthful talent and taking aim at qualification for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Martin has never tasted gold in his long career; he won silver at the 1991 Worlds in Winnipeg, Canada, finished fourth at the 1997 Ford Worlds in Bern, Switzerland and also won Olympic silver at Ogden/Salt Lake City (USA) in 2002.
Scotland skip David Murdoch captured his 2006 world championship at Lowell, Massachusetts and is also a two-time Le Gruyère European Champion. Third Graeme Connal and second Peter Smith were members of the David Smith foursome which defeated Canada’s Martin in the 1991 Worlds final.
Germany’s Andy Kapp returns to his 10th world championship but first without brother and third Uli Kapp since 1991 in Winnipeg. Kapp has won bronze three times and silver twice, including last year in Edmonton, and has also competed in two Olympic Winter Games (1998 in Karuizawa/Nagano, Japan and 2006 in Pinerolo/Turin, Italy) and also won two Le Gruyère European Championships (1992 and 1997).
Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, the 2006 world bronze medallist, is back for his fourth world championship and third in a row. With a new young front end, Ulsrud went 11-0 at the 2007 Le Gruyère European Championship before losing the final to Scotland’s Murdoch.
Claudio Pescia, the surprise Switzerland representative, heads three-quarters of the 2003 world runner-up team – then skipped by Ralph Stöckli – which now features Patrick Hürlimann at third stone. Hürlimann, the 1998 Olympic champion skip who also won world bronze in 1999, joined the Pescia team just in time for the Swiss championship in February. The formerly-retired competitor is a sitting Executive Board member of the World Curling Federation, and alternate Toni Müller, who won the recent 2008 World Mixed Doubles title with teammate Irene Schori, is expected to see some action as Hürlimann juggles meetings with high-performance competition.
Craig Brown of Madison, Wisconsin represents the host nation. Brown’s previous World appearance was at Glasgow 2000, where he finished fourth. Brown and teammates defeated a strong field at the U.S. championships in February, and earned the trip to Grand Forks over defending champion and 2007 world bronze medallist Todd Birr (Mankato, MI), 2006 Olympic bronze medallist Pete Fenson (Bemidji, MN), 2004 rep Jason Larway (Seattle, WA) and now three-time runner-up Craig Disher (Rolla, ND).
Sweden’s Anders Kraupp served for many years as alternate to Sweden’s three-time world champion Peja Lindholm, and makes his international debut as skip.
Two teams are representing their nation’s debut appearances in world men’s play. China’s young Fengchun Wang hopes to make an impact similar to that of countrymate Bingyu Wang, who skipped the Chinese women’s team to a stunning silver-medal performance at last week’s 2008 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship. Czech Republic skip Jiri Snitil won a close Worlds qualifying battle with Ireland at December’s European Championships, and finished 5-6 which included a win over Scotland.
Completing the field are Australia’s Hugh Millikin, who will be making his 11th Worlds appearance; Denmark, captained by Johnny Frederiksen; and France’s Thomas Dufour. All three competed at the 2007 Ford Men’s Worlds in Edmonton.
Qualifying points for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver are also on the line, available on a sliding scale from 14 to the winner, 12 to second, 10 to third, down to one point for last place. Points earned from World Curling Championships contested in 2007, 2008 and 2009 will decide nine nations, plus host Canada, to compete in 2010.
World Curling Television (WCTV), the television arm of the World Curling Federation, will also be providing daily game feeds and highlight packages to Eurosport and other international networks. Webstreamed internet coverage will be provided by CurlTV.com, in cooperation with Eurosport.com, WCSN.com in the United States and CBCSports.ca in Canada. CBC Bold will also televise the opening round match between Canada and Denmark on April 5 and the bronze medal game April 12, with the April 12 semifinal and April 13 championship final airing on all of the above networks.
The Opening Ceremonies take place at 6:00pm CT on Friday, April 4. With both U.S. Democratic party Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in town, Grand Forks is certainly the focus of national attention. The first draw of competition is at 2:00pm CT on Saturday, April 5.
Draw results will be available at curling.ca (look for 2008 Worlds CULCAST) and also mirrored at the World Curling Federation website at worldcurling.org, under CHAMPIONSHIPS.
Roster of competitors and coaches:
AUSTRALIA CANADA CHINA
Skip – Hugh Millikin (third stones) Skip – Kevin Martin Skip – Fengchun Wang
Ian Palangio (fourth stones) John Morris Rui Liu Sean Hall Marc Kennedy Xiaoming Xu
Steve Johns Ben Hebert Jialiang Zang
Steve Hewitt Adam Enright Dongyan Li
Coach: Earle Morris Coach: Jules Owchar Coach: Daniel Rafael
CZECH REPUBLIC DENMARK FRANCE
SKIP – Jiri Snitil Skip – Johnny Frederiksen Skip – Thomas Dufour
Martin Snitil Lars Vilandt Tony Angiboust
Jindrich Kitzberger Bo Jensen Jan Ducroz
Marek Vydra Ulrik Schmidt Richard Ducroz Milos Hoferka Mikkel Poulsen Raphael Mathieu
Coach: Sune Frederiksen Coach: John Helston Coach: Andre Ferland
GERMANY NORWAY SCOTLAND
Skip – Andy Kapp Skip – Thomas Ulsrud Skip – David Murdoch
Andreas Lang Torger Nergård Graeme Connal
Holger Höhne Christoffer Svae Peter Smith
Andreas Kempf Håvard Vad Petersson Euan Byers
Felix Schulze Thomas Due Peter Loudon
Coach: Oliver Axnick Coach: Ole Ingvaldsen Coach: David Hay
SWEDEN SWITZERLAND UNITED STATES
Skip – Anders Kraupp Skip – Claudio Pescia Skip – Craig Brown
Peder Folke Patrick Hürlimann Rich Ruohonen
Björn Brandberg Pascal Sieber John Dunlop Anton Sandström Marco Battilana Peter Annis
Mats Nyberg Toni Müller Kevin Kakela Coach: Stefan Hasselborg Coach: Heinz Schmid Coach: Steve Brown
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