It has been over a decade since Brad Jacobs has had the Maple Leaf on his again at a significant curling occasion. Placing on Canada’s colours again Friday at the Temple Gardens Centre was a sense that was robust to explain.
“We have been trying ahead to today for a extremely very long time,” Jacobs stated. “There’s nowhere else we would fairly be.”
Jacobs, vice Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert will symbolize Canada at the BKT World Males’s Curling Championship beginning Saturday.
They earned the spot by successful the Montana’s Brier earlier this month in Kelowna, B.C. The Alberta facet gained 4 straight elimination video games to lift the tankard, capped by a victory over Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone within the remaining.
“I feel that goes to indicate loads concerning the character of our group,” Jacobs stated after the staff held a one-hour follow session. “We persevered by plenty of challenges there. We have been very resilient. I am simply very happy with my guys.
“It is a dream to skip Ben Hebert, Brett Gallant and Marc Kennedy.”
Gallant was on the final Canadian staff to win this occasion, taking gold eight years in the past on a squad skipped by Brad Gushue in Edmonton.
Hebert and Kennedy gained world titles with Kevin Martin (2008) and Kevin Koe (2016) whereas Jacobs settled for silver in his lone look in 2013. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based skip took Olympic gold at the Sochi Video games the next yr.
“From what I noticed within the Brier, he is the Brad Jacobs of previous,” stated four-time world champion Glenn Howard, who’s teaching the Switzerland staff this week. “So world, look out. I feel the boys imagine in him. If you happen to imagine in your skip and he is on a roll, that is a reasonably good method.”
High-ranked Bruce Mouat of Scotland and seven-time champion Niklas Edin of Sweden are among the many headliners at the nine-day competitors together with reigning European champion Marc Muskatewitz of Germany.
Different notable entries embrace Italy’s Joel Retornaz, Korey Dropkin of the US, Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller and Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell.
“You may in all probability host this occasion 5, six, seven weeks in a row and also you would possibly be capable of get 5, six or seven totally different winners,” Jacobs stated. “So we’re hoping that it is our week.”
The 13-team subject additionally contains South Korea’s Jaebeom Lee, Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Austria’s Mathias Genner, China’s Xiaonubg Xu and Czechia’s Lukas Klima.
Canada will open round-robin play Saturday afternoon in opposition to Japan earlier than taking over Germany within the night.
“We do count on to get everybody’s greatest sport and that is what we wish,” Jacobs stated. “We simply need to outplay them and that is what we intend to do.”
The occasion will even decide many of the nations that can compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy. Mixed outcomes from the 2024 and ’25 world championships will decide seven entries that can be part of host Italy.
A final-chance qualifier to find out the ultimate two Olympic berths will likely be held in December in Kelowna, B.C.
Canada will decide its Olympic representatives in four-player staff occasions at the Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials this November in Halifax.
Edin beat Gushue in final yr’s world remaining in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Mouat topped Gushue for the 2023 title in Ottawa.
The highest six groups at the top of round-robin play April 4 will qualify for the playoffs. Medal video games are set for April 6.
Ottawa’s Rachel Homan gained gold at the ladies’s world playdowns earlier this month in Uijeongbu, South Korea.
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