James Craik is aiming to win his third successive Scottish Curling Junior Championship title, as the competition takes place at Curl Aberdeen this week.
Aberdeen-born Craik won the 2020 title as skip of Team Craik, and in 2019 as part of Team Whyte.
The 2o-year-old reigning champion will skip Team Craik which also includes Angus Bryce, Scott Hyslop and Niall Ryder, all of whom have been on fine form leading up to the competition.
Craik said: “We are really excited about getting started at the Scottish. Our whole season has been geared to towards this one event and it’s a real target of ours to make sure we come out on top this week.
“We are in prime condition and we have been working really hard so we are looking forward to putting that into practice and a really sold performance throughout this week.
“We are really looking forward to playing eight games against really strong opposition this week and really excited to test ourselves against the rest and see how we fare.
“It is a big field this year. We have played every team before at Scottish Slams so that brings us great confidence having won those two events going into this.
“We have got some tough opposition to beat, but we are really looking forward to digging deep and going towards it and picking up as many wins as we can this week in Aberdeen.”
International ambitions
The skip hopes that success at the Scottish Curling Junior Championships will see Team Craik represent Scotland at the 2022 World Junior Championships in Sweden, after the 2021 competition was cancelled due to Covid-19.
The Scottish Curling Junior Championships 2021 start today @curlaberdeen, with winners aiming for a spot at the @worldcurling World Juniors next year…
It's an exciting field, very open, with the title truly up for grabs!
PREVIEW: https://t.co/jFyRfrjXkX#SCJC2021 pic.twitter.com/bevJDB8172
— Scottish Curling (@scottishcurling) November 23, 2021
Craik has represented his country on the international stage twice before, but will be looking to improve on the bronze medals that he won in 2019 and 2020, if his team do reach the World Championships.
He added: “We really want to be the team that can get the chance to have Scotland on our backs and represent our country out in Sweden for the Worlds.
“Three of us (Craik, Ryder and Bryce) have been there before and we know what it is like. We really want to build on that experience we got last time and really strive for a nicer colour medal.
“However this is a step that needs to be done beforehand and winning the Nationals and earning the right to represent Scotland is a great task and we are in a good spot to go towards achieving that.
“We are really motivated this year and the way our team is playing we have a really good chance of winning the Scottish this year.
“We really want to genuinely show what we can do and with a bit of luck hopefully come out on top.
“There is not a greater honour than to represent Scotland at the Worlds at this level and it is something that everyone will be working incredibly hard for.”
