Brad Gushue and his teammates won’t be wearing Team Canada colours this year.
Over the weekend, the World Curling Federation (WCF) announced it was cancelling the 2020 world men’s curling championship in light of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The event was to have begun March 28 in Glasgow, Scotland, where Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Mark Nichols were to have been the Canadian representatives.
It was to have been the St. John’s team’s third world championship; Gushue and Co. won the event in 2017 in Edmonton and finished as runners-up to Sweden and Niklas Edin in Las Vegas in 2018.
Gushue is in agreement with the decision.
“We’d love to play, but I don’t think it would be a smart move,” he said. “The health and safety of the players, the volunteers, everybody involved is much more important than determining the winner of a curling event.
“And you know what? If they can cancel The Masters (golf tournament) because of this, then I think then we shouldn’t be surprised when any (sporting) event is cancelled.”
The Gushue rink, which won the Canadian men’s title at the Tim Hortons Brier earlier this month in Kingston. Ont., was to have been one of 13 teams entered in the world championships
Others included teams from China, South Korea and Germany, three of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus.
The news effectively mean’s the 2019-20 curling season is effectively finished for the world’s top-level teams. The WCF had earlier cancelled the 2020 world women’s championship, which was to have gotten underway in Prince George, B,C., over the weekend, and the final two events on the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar — the Players Championship in Toronto and Champions Cup in Olds, Alta. — were also scrapped.
The WCF has also cancelled the world mixed doubles and wheelchair championships, which were slated for Kelowna, B.C., next month. Curling Canada had already called off the 2020 national mixed doubles and senior events, which were to have been played in Portage la Prairie, Man., this week, and the Canadian wheelchair championship, set for next month.
Teams skipped by Laura Phillips of St. John’s and Keith Ryan of Labrador City were to have represented Newfoundland and Labrador at the senior competitions in Portage la Prairie, while the duo of Mackenzie Mitchell and Greg Smith would have been this province’s team in the Canadian mixed doubles championship.
Twitter: @telybrendan
