Brad Gushue did his part, but Team North America still trails Team World 5-4 after one day of competition at the Continental Cup tournament in London, Ont.
Gushue teamed with Lisa Weagle of Ottawa — normally the lead on Rachel Homan’s world women’s championship team — to down Oskar Ericsson and Anna Hasselborg of Sweden 7 -3 in mixed doubles play Thursday afternoon. The skip of the reigning Bier and world men's champions from St. John's then followed up with another victory in the evening draw. In the latter, Gushue and his regular teammates — Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker — defeated the Swiss entry skipped by Peter de Cruz 7-2.
“It was a good day today. To get two wins is nice,” said Gushue after the Thursday-night victory, which saw him steal two points in the third end for a 3-0 lead.
“I had a good partner (in mixed doubles) in Lisa and my team played really good tonight. It was a bit of an easier one. (It) is nice not to have it come down to last rock.”
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The win by Gushue’s team and another by Kevin Koe’s soon-to-be Olympic representatives from Calgary helped prevent Team World from taking early control of the four-day event.
Each team consists of the members of six rinks. Team North America includes four from Canada and the United States. The world team has five European rinks and one from Japan.
A total of 60 points are available over the four days of competition, which features traditional team games, mixed doubles games and skins games. The first team to reach 30.5 points is declared the winner.
With files from The Canadian Press
