GENEVA, Switz. — Team Canada’s Bruce Korte couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the World Senior Men’s Curling Championship.
Korte and his Saskatoon Nutana foursome of third Darrell McKee, second Kory Kohuch, lead Rory Golanowski and alternate Arlen Hall scored nine over the first two ends and went on to a 16-2 victory over Nigeria’s T.J. Cole in their opening game on Sunday morning.
The result wasn’t much of a surprise seeing as it came against a non-traditional curling nation, but it still served its purpose — getting Canada off to a positive start while giving Korte and crew a good feel for the ice conditions.
“It felt like the event had finally started, and it was good because we got to get some reps in,” Korte said on the Curling Canada website. “We got to know some tendencies and figure out what the ice is doing. We had the opportunity to play shots kind of differently because we had a lead, so it was good to just get a variation of types of shots and weights.”
Korte didn’t waste any time getting things going against Cole, third Robert Brianne, second Charles Neimeth and lead Aswad Allen, putting up five in the first end and adding a steal of four the next for a quick 9-0 lead.
Cole got on the board with one the next end, but Canada replied with four in the fourth and then stole the next two ends to lead 16-1. Nigeria got one back in the seventh, and the teams shook hands.
The 34-team tournament is broken into six pools, with Canada playing four round robin games.
They continue the event on Monday at 8 a.m. Saskatchewan time against Slovenia’s Mitja Resman before taking on Lavtia’s Ansis Regza at 12 a.m. on Tuesday and Ireland’s Bill Gray at 4 a.m. on Thursday.
The top teams after the round robin will play a qualification round at 1 a.m. on Friday, followed by the quarter-finals at 11 a.m. That sets the stage for the semifinals at 1 a.m. on Saturday and the medal games at 6 p.m.
You can follow along with all the scores from Worlds by clicking right here.
