MOOSE JAW, Sask. — Suzanne Birt reached the championship round at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts a second straight year with higher ambitions.
The Prince Edward Island skip upped her workload on and off the ice to be ready for battle against some of the world’s best teams.
Birt joined Ontario’s Rachel Homan, Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson, the Jennifer Jones wild-card team, Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville and defending champion Chelsea Carey in the round of eight at the national women’s curling championship.
Tiebreaker games Thursday morning will determine the two teams that join them.
Birt’s taste of the championship round in last year’s Hearts in Sydney, N.S., had Birt believing her team could achieve more if it did more.
She finished outside the Page playoff at 6-5. Birt lost in an extra end to Homan in the championship round.
“We realized how close we were at the very end of the Scotties,” Birt said Wednesday. “You put a little extra work into it and anything can happen.”
She doubled her team’s World Curling Tour events over last season.
Her team worked with a physical trainer, a sports psychologist and enlisted the expertise of current Manitoba men’s champion Jason Gunnlaugson for analytics and strategy.
“Experience is a big thing, but a lot of hard work throughout the year is probably the most important thing,” the 38-year-old Birt said.
“You’ve got to work on every aspect of your game, strategy, technical, mental, analytics. It’s all a huge part of the game. We’ve worked very hard at that this year.”
The top four teams in each pool of eight carry their records with them into the championship round starting Thursday afternoon.
Manitoba (6-1) finished first in Pool A ahead of Northern Ontario (5-2). Carey’s Team Canada, Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle and New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford were all (4-3).
The three-loss teams were 1-1 against each other in the round robin.
Carey earned the third seed by virtue of the draw-the-button competition that preceded the opening draw of the tournament.
Saskatchewan and New Brunswick will square off in a tiebreaker to determine the fourth seed in the pool.
Manitoba beat Alberta 8-5 to eliminate Alberta’s Laura Walker from contention.
Six-time Canadian champion Jones and three-time champ Homan topped Pool B at 6-1 ahead of Birt at 5-2.
Nova Scotia’s Mary-Anne Arsenault and B.C.’s Corryn Brown (4-3) will play a tiebreaker.
Teams in the championship round play four games against opponents from the other pool.
The four rinks with the best records advance to Saturday’s Page playoff. The semifinal and final are Sunday.
A 22-year-old Birt — then Suzanne Gaudet — made a stunning Hearts debut in 2003. She topped the preliminary round at 10-1 and finished third in the tournament.
Birt has yet to match her rookie success skipping P.E.I. an 11th time.
The two-time Canadian and former world junior champion was the fourth seed in the 2007 playoffs in Lethbridge, Alta., and lost out to Jones.
Ranked No. 9 among women’s teams in Canada compared to 25th a year ago, Birt opened the season reaching the quarterfinals of the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard in Ontario.
Birt finished top three in six of seven Atlantic Canada events the first half of the season.
“The more times you do something, like the 10,000-hour rule, that’s exactly what we needed to do this year is just get the reps in and make mistakes and learn from them,” second Meaghan Hughes said.
“We played a ton of games this season and did a lot of things differently.
“We worked with a strategy coach, we work with a trainer, we worked with a sports psychologist. We tried to look at all the different facets of our game and make sure we’re covering those off.”
Hughes is among the pregnant curlers at this year’s Hearts. She’s due this summer as is the Saskatchewan front end of Jessie Hunkin and Kara Thevenot.
Hughes says P.E.I. is going into the championship round under the radar.
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
