Stirling will play host the biggest wheelchair curling event outside of the Paralympic Winter Games as the 2019 Wheelchair Curling Championships comes to The Peak Sports Village. Scotland’s athletes are not only competing for a world title but the Championships is also a qualification event for the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games.
The event will feature 12 mixed gender teams: one from the host nation, eight qualifying directly from the previous World Championships and three from the World Wheelchair Curling Qualifying event.
The qualification event held in Lohja, Finland, in November, saw the wheelchair curling teams from Estonia, Slovakia and Latvia confirm their places in Stirling. This will be the first time that Estonia and Latvia have competed at the World Championships, whilst Slovakia return after their absence in 2017. With that, the final 12 nations for Stirling are now confirmed as Canada, China, Estonia, Germany, South Korea, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and United States.
The draw for the World Championships has taken place and Scotland will face the world’s best as follows;
Sunday 3 March (19.00) Scotland v Switzerland
Monday 4 March (14.00) Scotland v Latvia
Monday 4 March (19.00) Scotland v Germany
Tuesday 5 March (9.00) Scotland v Norway
Tuesday 5 March (14.00) Scotland v South Korea
Wednesday 6 March (9.00) Scotland v China
Wednesday 6 March (14.00) Scotland v USA
Thursday 7 March (9.00) Scotland v Slovakia
Thursday 7 March (19.00) Scotland v Russia
Friday 8 March (14.00) Scotland v Estonia
Friday 8 March (19.00) Scotland v Canada
Semi Finals will be held on Saturday 9 March at 19.00, the bronze medal match on Sunday 10 March at 10.00 followed by that gold medal match at 14.30.
The Championships return to Scotland for the first time since 2005, when Scotland took the World title. This will also be the first time that 12 teams have competed in a World Wheelchair Championship and it will be the first opportunity for nations to gain qualification points towards the next Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, in 2022.
You can follow the build-up and results of the World Wheelchair Curling Championship at http://www.worldcurling.org/wwhcc2019, on Twitter, Instagram (@worldcurling | @wwhcc2019) and Facebook (/WorldCurlingFederation | /wwhcc19) and by searching the hashtags #WWhCC2019 #curling.