Ford World Men's Curling Championship starts Saturday in Moncton, New Brunswick
March 31, 2009...The Ford world men's curling championship, presented by Atlantic Lottery, starts Saturday at the Coliseum in Moncton, New Brunswick, as 12 countries not only begin the nine-day battle for global honours, but also try to earn Olympic qualifying points for a final time, prior to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
This marks the 15th year of title sponsorship of a world championship by Ford of Canada, and the fifth consecutive year that the men's and women's championships have been conducted separately, after being combined from 1989-2004. It's also the 50th anniversary (51st edition) of the world men's curling championship, which was contested as the Scotch Cup for the first time in 1959 in Scotland and featured a team from Canada (skip Ernie Richardson) against one from Scotland (skip Willie Young).
Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland and the United States are set to compete at the 6,000-seat Moncton Coliseum.
The 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 12, 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 goes to Sunday's bronze medal game to face the loser of the semi-final.
Canada's Kevin Martin of Edmonton, winner of the recent Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary and the defending world champion, will be seeking a leading 32nd title for Canada since 1959. Martin was undefeated (13-0) at this year's Canadian men's curling championship, his fourth such title, while establishing a Brier consecutive games-won record of 26, after also going unbeaten (13-0) at last year's Tim Hortons Brier in Winnipeg.
No Canadian team has ever gone undefeated at a Brier and a world championship in the same year. He'll also try to become just the fifth skip to win back-to-back world men's titles, and the first since Edmonton's Randy Ferbey accomplished the feat in 2002-2003.
Last year, the 42-year-old Martin parlayed his Brier success into a career-first world title, defeating Scotland's David Murdoch in the final in Grand Forks, North Dakota, after previous silver medal finishes while representing Canada at the 1986 world juniors, 1991 world men's and 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
Scotland will once again be represented by 30-year-old David Murdoch of Lockerbie, who won the 2006 world men's title in Lowell, Massachusetts, and has twice been a world men's silver medallist - in 2005 and 2008. Murdoch is also a three-time European champion (2003, 2007 and 2008).
Norway's Thomas Ulsrud of Oslo, the 2006 and 2008 world bronze medallist, returns for a fifth time as skip, while China's Fengchun Wang of Harbin, who debuted last year at the world men's and finished a remarkable fourth, is also returning, after winning a second straight Pacific Championship last November.
Switzerland's Ralph Stöckli earned a silver medal at the 2003 Ford Worlds in Winnipeg, losing to Canada's Randy Ferbey in the final. Playing second for Stöckli is Markus Eggler, who skipped Switzerland to a 1992 world men's title in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Germany's Andy Kapp, making his 11th appearance as skip, won a world men's silver medal in 1997 and 2007, to go with his three bronze medals in 1994, 1995 and 2005. He's also a two-time (1992, 1997) European champion.
Completing the field are Czech Republic (Jiri Snitil), Denmark (Ulrik Schmidt), Finland (Kalle Kiiskinen), France (Thomas Dufour), Japan (Yusuke Morozumi) and United States (John Shuster).
TSN will televise all games involving Canada throughout the round robin, followed by the playoffs, with the gold medal final slated for Sunday, April 12 at 7:30 pm AT/6:30 pm ET. WCTV, the television arm of the World Curling Federation, will also be providing daily game feeds and highlight packages for Eurosport and other international networks.
Canada has hosted 19 men's world championships, including 2009. This will mark the second time that Moncton has staged a world's men's event. The city held the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, which was won by Canada's Rick Folk, as his team went unbeaten during the week.
The province of New Brunswick also hosted the 1999 Ford Worlds in Saint John, which was won by Scotland's Hammy McMillan and Sweden's Elisabet Gustafson.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the men's championship, a spectacular two and one-half hour Opening Ceremonies gala, "the World Curling Tattoo", will take place on Friday, April 3, beginning at 7:30 pm, following the Opening Banquet, with numerous bands, dancers and special audio-visual presentations.
Draw results will be instantly available on the Canadian Curling Association (www.curling.ca <http://www.curling.ca>) and World Curling Federation (www.worldcurling.org <http://www.worldcurling.org>) websites.
2009 FORD WORLD MEN'S CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP
April 4-12, The Coliseum, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
(Teams listed in order of skip, third, second, lead, alternate and coach)
CANADA - Saville Sports Centre, Edmonton, Alberta
Kevin Martin
John Morris
Marc Kennedy
Ben Hebert
Terry Meek
Jules Owchar
CHINA - Harbin Curling Club, Harbin
Fengchun Wang
Rui Liu
Xiaoming Xu
Jialiang Zang
Lu an Chen
Daniel Rafael
CZECH REPUBLIC - CK Brno, Brno
Jiri Snitil
Martin Snitil
Jindrich Kitzberger
Karel Uher
Milos Hoferka
Sune Frederiksen
DENMARK - Hvidovre Curling Club, Hvidovre
Ulrik Schmidt (third rocks)
Johnny Frederiksen (fourth rocks)
Bo Jensen
Lars Vilandt
Mikkel Poulsen
James Dryburgh
FINLAND - Hyvinkää Curling Club, Hyvinkää
Kalle Kiiskinen
Jani Sullanmaa
Teemu Salo
Jari Rouvinen
Juha Pekaristo
Paavo Kuosmanen
FRANCE - Chamonix Curling Club, Chamonix
Thomas Dufour
Tony Angiboust
Richard Ducroz
Jan Ducroz
Raphaël Mathieu
André Ferland
GERMANY - CC Füssen, Füssen
Andy Kapp
Andreas Lang
Holger Höhne
Andreas Kempf
Daniel Herberg
Oliver Axnick
JAPAN - Karuizawa Curling Club, Karuizawa
Yusuke Morozumi
Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi
Tetsuro Shimizu
Kosuke Morozumi
Keita Satoh
Hatomi Nagaoka
NORWAY - Snarøen CC, Oslo
Thomas Ulsrud
Torger Nergård
Christoffer Svae
Håvard Vad Petersson
Thomas Løvold
Ole Ingvaldsen
SCOTLAND - Lockerbie Curling Club, Lockerbie
David Murdoch
Ewan MacDonald
Peter Smith
Euan Byers
Graeme Connal
David Hay
SWITZERLAND - Basel-Regio Curling Club, Basel
Ralph Stöckli
Jan Hauser
Markus Eggler
Simon Strübin
Toni Müller
Russ Howard
UNITED STATES - Duluth Curling Club, Duluth, Minnesota
John Shuster
Jason Smith
Jeff Isaacson
John Benton
Chris Plys
Brian Simonson
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