Canada’s top young curlers in Oakville to battle for national titles

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Published April 29, 2022 at 2:45 pm

The 2022 Canadian Under-18 Boys and Girls Curling Championships get underway Sunday at the Oakville Curling Club. CURLING CANADA PHOTO

Canada’s best young curling teams hit the ice in Oakville this weekend in search of the first boys and girls national titles since 2019.

The 2022 Canadian Under-18 Boys and Girls Curling Championships get underway Sunday at the Oakville Curling Club.

A total of 42 teams (21 boys and 21 girls) will compete in the event which runs through to May 7.

This marks the first under-18 championship since the 2019 event held in Sherwood Park, Alta. Both the 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s field consists of 12 provincial/territorial championship winners (the Yukon and Nunavut did not send teams), with nine Member Associations able to send a second team based on their combined results from the 2018 and 2019 Canadian Under-18 Championships.

The extra teams competing with the girls come from Ontario, Northern Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, New Brunswick, B.C., Nova Scotia, Quebec and Manitoba.

For boys, the extra teams hail from Nova Scotia, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, B.C., Northern Ontario, Newfoundland/Labrador and Saskatchewan.

In both the boys and girls championship, the teams will be split into three pools of seven with teams seeded based on results from the 2018 and 2019 championships.

The teams will play six round-robin games in their pools, with top three teams from each pool advancing to the single-knockout playoffs.

Ninth place will face eighth in a preliminary playoff game, with the winner moving into the quarterfinal against the top seed.

The 12 teams that don’t make the championship playoff will play down in consolation playoffs to determine the final overall standings.

Round-robin play gets underway Sunday at 8 p.m. (all times Eastern), with draws Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday features five round-robin draws, at 8 a.m., 11 a.m.. 2:30 p.m.,, 5:45 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Northern Ontario has won two the three girls Under 18 titles, sandwiched around a win by Nova Scotia in 2018.

Northern Ontario, Nova Scotia and Ontario, most recently, have won national Under 18 championships on the boys side.

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