Scotland have made a confident start to their Kuntai World Wheelchair Curling Championships campaign and after five days of round robin competition, the Scots currently sit 4th in the table.
Scotland got off to a flying start with victories over Norway and Italy but followed this up with a disappointing defeat to Korea. However, Coach Sheila Swan rallied the team who responded with victories against Switzerland and Canada.
Day four of the round robin competition opened with a match against Sweden, which the Scots would ultimately lose 9-2. Scotland Vice Skip Gregor Ewan commented after the encounter;
“We have played Sweden a few times this season and we have had the better of them a couple of times but they are a good strong team and that game was very hard. As a team of four not one of us actually turned up to play them. We played so bad it was unbelievable,” he said.
Ewan explained that a pep talk from Coach Sheila Swan had contributed to turning things around for the afternoon session which saw the Scots emphatically beat Latvia 10-1;
“We came out of the game against Sweden, back to the team room and Sheila was not too happy with us,” he said.
“We knew that we had to be better than we were this morning and I am glad to say that everyone produced in that Latvia game.”
Day five of the Championships shaped up to be the most challenging of the week with Scotland scheduled to meet defending World Champions the RCF and reigning Paralympic champions China. This was to be a day of mixed fortunes with an opening 8-4 defeat to the RCF. However, the Scots once again demonstrated supreme mental strength to bounce back and record a fantastic 3-2 victory over China.
Scotland will bring their round robin fixture to a conclusion tomorrow when they start the day, facing Slovakia and the USA in the afternoon session. Hopes are high that positive results in these fixture will see the Scots progress to the knockout stages of the Championships.
Team Scotland
Hugh Nibloe (Stirling) – made his debut as skip at the last World Wheelchair Champs and this will be his second opportunity to lead Scotland’s quartet into action at what will be his fifth World Championship appearance.
David Melrose (Duns) – made his debut at the World Championships when it was hosted in Stirling when Scotland won silver in 2019 and after being unable to compete in Wetzikon in Switzerland in 2020, he is looking forward to representing Scotland again.
Gregor Ewan (Elgin) – the two time Paralympian last took to the podium at a World Champs in 2017 and this event represents his first major championship appearance since competing at the Paralympics in PyeongChang in 2018
Charlotte McKenna (Bridge of Allan) – Debutant at last year’s World Champs.
Meggan Dawson-Farrell (Tullibody) – Former Commonwealth Games athlete who was alternate at her first World Champs last year and will hope to take to the ice this time around.
Results to date
Scotland v Norway 6-4
Scotland v Italy 10-4
Scotland v Korea 6-8
Scotland v Canada 7-4
Scotland v Switzerland 11-7
Scotland v Sweden 2-9
Scotland v Latvia 10-1
Scotland v RCF 4-8
Scotland v China 3-2
#curling #WWhCC2021 #cheerfromoverhere
Thanks to Kate Weldon at British Curling
Photos: © WCF/Alina Pavlyuchik
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