The European Curling Championships begin Friday in Esbjerg, Denmark, with berths in the worlds up for grabs.
A bonus for this year’s winners is they will also earn spots for the inaugural Champions Cup, the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event, running April 26 to May 1, 2016, in Sherwood Park, Alta.
Read part one here as we now explore the teams to keep an eye out for on the men’s and women’s sides during the event:
MEN’S TEAMS TO WATCH
– Niklas Edin (Sweden): Edin formed a new team last year but they found the winning recipe and ran the table at the European Championships with an 11-0 record. Edin, a three-time European champion, doesn’t expect it’ll be as smooth a ride this time around with the target on their back, but the reigning world champions shouldn’t have a problem getting through the round-robin either. They’ve stayed in Canada for the first few months of the season calling Ottawa home to cut down on travel time and jet lag while competing in more events and building their experience together.
– Thomas Ulsrud (Norway): Ulsrud qualified at the National this past weekend reaching the playoffs at a Pinty’s GSOC event for the first time since the 2013 Players’ Championship. That boost might be what his team needs to power past the field here. Ulsrud has earned nine medals at this tournament, including back-to-back golds in 2010 and 2011, but has had to settle for silver the past three years.
– Kyle Smith (Scotland): Smith topped veterans David Murdoch and Tom Brewster in order to represent Scotland, no easy feat there. The 2013 world junior champion captured the Edinburgh International title this season and made it to the semifinals at the Tour Challenge Tier 2 and Swiss Cup Basel events. Fun Fact 1: Team Smith third Thomas Muirhead and alternate Glen Muirhead are the brothers of women’s skip Eve Muirhead. Fun Fact 2: The team is coached by Olympic bronze medallist Viktor Kjäll, a former teammate of Edin.
– Jaap van Dorp (Netherlands): Van Dorp has also put his team on the radar this season with runner-up finishes at the Swiss Cup Basel and Edinburgh International tournaments, the best results ever for a Dutch team on tour according to CurlingZone. Van Dorp came in second in the B Division last year and is now up in the main stage where his team could go on a surprise run like the one we saw from Joël Retornaz last year, who guided Team Italy to second in the round-robin and a fourth-place finish.
– Aku Kauste (Finland): Kauste stole the quirky headlines at the worlds — usually reserved for Team Ulsrud and their pants — thanks to teammate Pauli Jaamies’ dreadlocks. Rest assured, they are contenders after winning the European Curling Championships B Division last year to earn a promotion as well as finishing fourth at the worlds.
WOMEN’S TEAMS TO WATCH
– Alina Pätz (Switzerland): Reigning world champion Pätz has made it to the final at two tour events this season but has struggled in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series. Her team declined an invite to the National and should be well-rested. Just getting through Swiss playdowns was a challenge facing Tour Challenge Tier 1 winner Silvana Tirinzoni and last year’s world/European champion Binia Feltscher. Pätz, competing in her first European Curling Championships, looks to follow in the path of Feltscher and complete the double in a calendar year.
– Eve Muirhead (Scotland): Muirhead is always a contender in this event earning medals at the past five European Curling Championships including gold in 2011. Her team had a disappointing 1-3 run at the Pinty’s GSOC Masters but like Pätz they too turned down their spot in the National and should be good to go here.
– Anna Sidorova (Russia): Sidorova went winless through the Tour Challenge but her team has been on a bit of a run lately winning the Women’s Masters Basel, qualifying at the Pinty’s GSOC Masters and finishing runner-up at the International ZO Women’s Tournament. Sidorova has earned a medal of every colour at the Europeans topped with her gold medal victory in 2012.
– Cissi Ostlund (Sweden): Ostlund might have raised a few eyebrows as the pick for Sweden over Margaretha Sigfridsson and Anna Hasselborg, but Ostlund’s team has been quite active on tour in Canada this season and has qualified at three events, highlighted with a semifinal finish at the Hub International Crown of Curling in Kamloops, B.C. It’ll be interesting to see if she’ll rise to the occasion here and go on to carry the torch for Sweden at future international events.
– Dorottya Palancsa (Hungary): Now here’s a wild card in the field. Palancsa is a powerhouse on the mixed doubles circuit having won the world championship in that discipline twice in the past three years. How her game translates to the four-person team format is intriguing even if she’s not a contender.