The curling stars of the future are at Curl Aberdeen for the World Junior Curling Championships 2018. Day 1 of the action gets underway at 9am and tickets are available online.
With the Olympic champions from Pyeongchang now decided the international focus moves on to the champions of tomorrow with the World Junior Curling Championships 2018 this week at Curl Aberdeen in Scotland.
Altogether ten women’s and ten men’s teams, representing 12 Member Associations of the World Curling Federation are taking part.
The teams have qualified either by finishing in the top six qualifying places at last year’s World Juniors or by finishing in the top three in the World Junior-B Curling Championships. In addition, Scotland qualify as hosts.
To be eligible to play in the World Junior Curling Championships, a player must be less than 21 years of age by the end of the 30th day of June of the year immediately preceding the year the championships are taking place.
The ten women’s teams are (in qualification order): Sweden, Scotland, Canada, Korea, Switzerland, Russia, United States, China, Turkey and Norway.
The ten men’s teams are: Korea, United States, Norway, Scotland, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, China, Russia and Germany.
By its very nature, the World Junior Curling Championships is a gateway event for future international careers, so several individuals and teams will be making their championship debuts at this event, but the field includes some familiar faces.
Women
Canada: 2017 bronze medallist Karlee Burgess returns as the second player for Kaitlyn Jones’ team
Korea: 2017 fourth-place team returns led by skip Minji Kim
Scotland: 2017 silver medal skip Sophie Jackson returns as alternate for Rebecca Morrison
Sweden: skip Isabella Wranaa leads the 2017 champions in a title defence
Switzerland: 2017 fifth-place team returns skipped by Selina Witschonke
Turkey: 2017 tenth-placed team returns led by Dilsat Yildiz
United States’: re-cast 2017 seventh-place team returns, this time with Madison Bear taking the helm
Men
Canada: 2017 fifth-place team returns with Tyler Tardi leading
China: 2017 player Zhiyu Wang returns as skip
Norway: bronze medal skip Magnus Ramsfjell returns
Scotland: 2017 fourth-place player Robin Brydone returns as vice-skip for Youth Olympian Ross Whyte
Sweden: 2017 seventh-place skip Johan Nygren returns as the third player for Daniel Magnusson
Switzerland: are re-cast following their fifth-place finish in 2017 – Jan Hess skips
Unites States: 2017 silver medal team returns with Andrew Stopera [pictured above] back as skip
Altogether 18 sessions of round-robin play will take place, concluding on Thursday 8 March. Thereafter, semi-finals will be staged on Friday 9 March, with medal games taking place on Saturday 10 March.
The World Junior Curling Championships women’s gold and bronze medal games will be at 09:00 on 10 March, followed by the men’s finals at 14:00.
Sportsmanship Awards are presented at the closing ceremony to a junior woman and man selected by their peers as those ‘who exemplify the traditional values of skill, honesty, fair play, sportsmanship and friendship in the world of curling’.
(Preview courtesy of the World Curling Federation website.)
Play starts today at 9am with the Opening Ceremony at 12 noon followed by two more sessions starting at 2pm and 7pm respectively.
Tickets in advance for the World Junior Curling Championships are available via the ‘Get Tickets‘ link. All seating will be in the Ice Hall so suitable clothing is required.
Nb. There’s plenty more top-class curling action coming up in 2018. Subscribe now to our free newsletter and we’ll keep you updated with all the latest ticket news!