BONUS ONLINE-ONLY COVERAGE // USA secures berth for 2015 Men’s World Championship By Terry L. Kolesar, Editor,
terry.kolesar@usacurl.org
Jan. 30-31 at the Four Seasons Curling Club in Blaine, Minn. McCormick (Sarnia, Ontario) and teammates Chris Plys (Duluth,
T
Minn.), Joe Polo (Duluth, Minn.), Ryan Brunt (St. Paul, Minn.), and Colin Hufman (Seattle) defeated Brazil’s Marcelo Mello rink 7-3 in the opening round and triumphed 6-4 in game two. Te Americans wrapped up the best-of-five series with a 9-3 victory on Jan. 31 at USA Curling’s National Training Center. Te U.S. will now take part in the 2015 Ford World Men’s Championship
March 28-April 6 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Te U.S. team will be determined at the 2015 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich. In the third match-up, the U.S. men came out firing with three points
to open the game and put the gas pedal down hard in the third with three more points to pull ahead 6-1. Brazil scored a deuce in the fiſth but strug- gled to put more than one more point on the scoreboard thereaſter. Brazil previously challenged the U.S. in 2009 and 2010 for world berths
with the U.S. sealing its appearance in those world championships by win- ning the challenge each time in three straight games. (Brazil also put forth a challenge in 2012 but later withdrew). Twelve teams compete at both the men’s and women’s world curling
championships each year. Two teams represent the Americas Zone, encom- passing both North and South America. Since the inception of the world championships, the only two WCF member associations to represent the Americas have been Canada and the United States. Canada qualified for the 2015 Ford Worlds by finishing higher than the U.S. at the 2014 world men’s championship last spring in China and by virtue of hosting this year’s world event. Te 2015 Women’s World Championship in Sapporo, Japan, also features
12 countries. Te U.S. women automatically qualified for the event as there was not a challenge from any other WCF member in the Americas Zone. n
Brazil (Mello) *USA (McCormick)
USA (McCormick) *Brazil (Mello)
Brazil (Mello)
*USA (McCormick) *last rock in first end
USA’s Heath McCormick rink, including (above, l-r) Joe Polo, Colin Hufman, and Chris Plys swept Brazil (below) in three games to win the Americas Chal- lenge and secure a berth for the U.S. in the upcoming World Men’s Champi- onship in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Photos by Rich Harmer for USA Curling
Line scores: 2015 Americas Challenge Game 3:
010 020 10x x – 4
303 001 02x x – 9 Game 2:
103 100 100 x – 6
010 010 011 x – 4 Game 1:
000 010 101 x – 3 101 001 040 x – 7
he United States will take part in the 2015 World Men’s Champi- onship aſter the Heath McCormick rink secured the berth with a 3-0 sweep of Brazil at the Americas Challenge, which took place
USA Curling (( 33
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