(File photo rdnewsNOW)

By rdnewsNOW staff

oct. 27 through nov. 2

Pan Continental Curling Championships begin in Lacombe Sunday

Oct 23, 2024 | 11:45 AM

This Sunday, the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships officially begin at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex in Lacombe.

From Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, the best teams from the Americas and Asia Pacific regions, including Canada’s Team Brad Gushue and Team Rachel Homan, will look to earn a spot at the 2025 world men’s and women’s curling championships.

The top five teams in each of the men’s and women’s competitions will earn a spot at worlds.

At the Pan Continental Curling Championships, the eight teams on both the men’s and women’s competition will play a seven-game round robin before the top four teams advance to the semi-finals.

From there, the winners will advance to the gold medal games scheduled for Saturday and the losers to the bronze medal games on Friday.

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During the same time as the main draw, the Pan Continental B Division Championships will take place where the winners will earn a spot in the main draw in 2025.

The teams who finish last in the main draw will be relegated to the B Division next year.

The men’s event features Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The women’s event has teams from Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines.

Fans will get an opportunity to see a revamped Team Gushue from St. John’s Newfoundland, now featuring Brendan Bottcher at second. Returning to the team are Alternate Adam Casey, coach Jeff Hoffart and national coach Jeff Stoughton.

Gushue is coming off back to back gold medal wins at the Pan Continental Curling Championships in the inaugural event in 2022 and again in Kelowna in 2023. Winning in Lacombe would complete the three-peat.

They’ll kickoff the tournament on Sunday against South Korea at 8:30 a.m. and Chinese Taipei at 7:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan qualified for the tournament for the first time and will look to win Canada their first gold medal on the women’s side.

Homan is joined by vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes and alternate Rachel Brown. They’re fresh off a victory at the 2024 PointsBet Invitational earlier this season.

On Sunday, they’ll open the tournament against the United States at 1:30 p.m.

The full schedule can be found here.