Some Surprises at Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship

With files from Curling Canada

Canada’s Olympic mixed doubles team of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant finished 3-3 in their pool at the Canadian MD championship and will not advance to Thursday’s qualification round/playoffs.

The 28-team, four-pool competition at Surrey, B.C. has served up other surprises this week as Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing also finished 3-3 in their pool. However, the former national champions have advanced to a qualification round match.

Johnson Tao – recently announced as the new third for Kevin Koe’s men’s foursome – and teammate Zoe Cinnamon won the Peterman/Gallant pool at 5-1. 

Pool runner-ups Rachel Homan and Brendan Bottcher – who lost the Olympic Trials final to Peterman/Gallant – also finished 5-1 but lost their match 8-5 to Cinnamon/Tao.

Ontario duo Katie Ford and Oliver Campbell (Kitchener) won their pool with a spotless 6-0 won/loss record, as did fellow Ontarians Kira Brunton and Jacob Horgan (Ottawa).

The biggest surprise might be the Quebec team of Sophie Sanscartier and Maxandre Caron, who won their pool at 5-1.

It’s Sanscartier’s first national appearance (Caron’s second) and they don’t compete very much, due to busy home and work lives.

“We don’t curl a lot outside of Quebec,” said Sanscartier. “We know we can, it’s just a question of finding money and family (responsibilities).”

The pair have known each other since they were 15 (they’re 32 now). They made the final in three provincial tournaments and the semifinal in another, which helped rack up the points that gave them a chance to be Canadian champions.

Sanscartier and Caron have also scored 15 ends worth of steals this week in Surrey.

“We don’t do a lot of takeouts,” said Caron.

The qualification round matchups are: Melissa Adams and Alex Robichaud (5-1, Fredericton) against Jones/Laing with the winner taking on Cinnamon/Tao in a quarterfinal; Homan/Bottcher versus Riley and Brendan Craig (3-3, St. Catharines, Ont.) with the victor to play Québec; Serena Gray-Withers and Viktor Pietrangelo (4-2, Niagara Falls, Ont.) up against Saskatchewan’s Nancy Martin and Rylan Kleiter (4-2, Martensville) with the winner getting Ontario; and Laura Neil and Scott McDonald (4-2, Kingston, Ont.) matched with Weeks/Steep (4-2) with the winner battling Ford/Campbell.