NZ Curling

Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy – 7 April 2010: The World Curling Federation has elected Kate Caithness from Scotland as president. Caithness, who has been serving as Vice-President since 2006, was elected to the post, gathering more votes than Les Harrison who was seeking re-election, at the annual general meeting of the Federation in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Dunedin's first Summer Classic Spiel last weekend was voted a success by all who participated.

This was a two-part competition, comprising both curling and other on-ice and off-ice contests.

The Central Otago team skipped by John Campbell, with Natalie Campbell, Brydie Donald and Warren Kearney won both the curling competition and the overall title, and with it a trophy that is certain to be much sought-after in years to come.

The NZ Curling Association's second newsletter for 2010 gives notice of the Annual General Meeting, including a recommendation for a new "associate membership" category to the NZCA.

The Association's 5-year Strategic Plan has been updated for 2010-2015, nominations for NZ team selectors and officials are requested, and there is an update on the NZ teams for next month's World Seniors and Mixed Doubles Championships in Russia.

I hope that all of New Zealand's curling community were able to watch some of the excellent coverage we saw of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, learn by watching the world's best in action, and capture some of the emotion of the Games.

New Zealand Curling has to start planning now if we want to have two teams at the next Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014. And so do our next Olympic curling athletes.

There may be no New Zealand teams curling in Vancouver at the Olympic or Paralympic Games, but there's plenty of coverage to see the roaring game at its best!

• Vancouver 2010 official site and its pages for Olympic and Paralympic curling
• SKYsport has 4 dedicated Winter Olympics channels, and PrimeTV will show some events free to air. See their broadcast schedule and news.
• The World Curling Federation has official results for Men's, Women's and Paralympic competitions
• NZOC's Winter Olympics site will follow the progress of the NZ team at Vancouver

And there's no shortage of commentary and opinion either –

• Skip Cottage Curling blog – with an emphasis on Scotland / UK
• The Curling News blog is always worth a read
• CurlingZone – news, commentary and links to other blogs
• The Canadian Curling Association will feature exclusive pics and the "Olympic Insider" blog

After the disappointment of just missing out on qualifying for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, New Zealand curling came of age in 2006. The NZ Men's team qualified for the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics by virtue of their 7th placing at the 2004 World Championship and an 8th the following year.

The team went to Turin with hopes of improving on their ranking of 9th out of 10 teams. Unfortunately it was not to be, and despite some matches going down to last stone they were unable to secure a win at the Games.

The NZ Men's curling team qualified for the 2006 Winter Olympics over a three year period of NZ competitions, Pacific championships and World Championships. Hans Frauenlob and Dan Mustapic share their experiences and thoughts on what that was like and how they achieved their Olympic dream.

The NZ Men’s curling team went to the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics – but NZ didn’t even come close to qualifying for Vancouver in 2010! What changed?

The NZ Curling Association Executive's newsletter has result summaries for the recent Pacific Junior Championships and the Karuizawa International tournaments in Japan, advance notice of the Association's AGM in May and a proposed change to the NZCA Rules.