Aberdeen curler Rebecca Morrison has been confirmed as skip for the Scottish women’s team at next month’s world championships in Sweden.
Fellow European championship medal winners and national champions, Team Mouat, will represent Scotland in the men’s event with the women’s event running from March 18 to 26. The men’s event is the following week from April 1 to 9.
Morrison and teammates Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson will be hoping for better luck during their trip to Sandviken in Sweden after their participation last year was cut short due to a Covid outbreak in the camp.
Morrison said: “Last year was incredibly difficult, having to withdraw from the World Championships, especially as you just never know when you’re going to get an opportunity like that again, so we’re absolutely delighted to be getting it just a year later and hopefully everything will go a lot smoother this time.”
Looking forward to World Curling Championships
The team go into the event with confidence after taking bronze in the European Championships earlier this season as well as going unbeaten in retaining their national title.
Morrison said: “Even though it’s now a case of selection for the World Championships, winning the Scottish title meant so much to our team. It’s such an important competition to us.
“Having the experience of the Europeans, where curling is so strong right now and getting a good few wins over great teams there, gives us so much confidence going into these World Championships.
“At the Europeans we got wins over teams such as Sweden and Italy, so that puts us in good stead.
“Goal one will be to make the play-offs and we’ll just take it step by step from there. We know it’s going to be tough out there.
“There are a lot of brilliant teams and plenty that we’ve never played before, so it will be a new experience for us and we’re just looking forward to taking in as much as we can ahead of these Olympic qualifying points years that are coming up.”
Euros experience will be vital for Team Morrison
Morrison and her team will be returning to the country where they claimed their bronze in the European Championship and the skip is hoping to draw on that experience on the world stage.
She said: “We have some great memories of playing in Sweden from the other month and it’s also great that it’s so close to home, so we’re going to have plenty family and friends coming out to watch us play.”
Both Scotland teams will be joined by Olympians as their fifth players with Jen Dodds, who had just won a gold medal this time last year, returning to the full version of the game after a season spent focusing on mixed doubles.
For the men’s team 2018 Olympian Kyle Waddell continues in the role after winning gold in the European Championship with Team Mouat in November.
Team Morrison – Rebecca Morrison, Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair, Sophie Jackson, Jen Dodds (alternate), Nancy Smith (team coach), Greg Drummond (coach), Nigel Holl (team leader).
Team Mouat – Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell (alternate), Michael Goodfellow (team coach), Ross Paterson (coach), Nigel Holl (team leader)
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