It used to be the pinnacle of the sport of curling in Canada, but the Tim Hortons Brier is now a glorified warmup for the biggest event of all 19 months from now — the Olympic trials.
For starters, the Brier field is much weaker than your standard Grand Slam event, of which there are six throughout the winter across Canada. Every province is represented this week at the Kingston Brier, which means no-hope teams from the Territories, Nunavut, P.E.I., New Brunswick, etc., will serve as whipping boys for the sport’s titans.
Nine men’s teams — along with nine women’s foursomes — will qualify for the December, 2021 Olympic Trials in Saskatoon, aiming to wear the Maple Leaf in Olympic competition in Beijing in 2022. Those precious nine positions in the trials feature eight qualifiers from a number of events leading up to the Trials, with the final spot being determined by the winner of a ‘pre-trials’ qualifying event.
The winning team this week is not only the Brier champion and winner of around $100,000 in prize money but it’s an automatic qualifier for the Trials, which, if you ask the curlers, is the biggest plum at stake this week.
So who will win? Watch out for Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs, who shook up his team this year by saying so long to third Ryan Fry and adding former Kevin Koe third Marc Kennedy. Jacobs and Kennedy form a formidable back end, and the Brush Brothers — E.J. and Ryan Harnden — have few peers at the front end. The addition of Kennedy has helped vault Jacobs’ crew to three Grand Slam victories in four events this season.
Those three victories make Jacobs a big favourite at Kingston this week, but the other main contenders forming the cream of the curling crop in Canada — rinks skipped by Kevin Koe, Brendan Bottcher, Brad Gushue, John Epping, Matt Dunstone, Jason Gunnlaugson, Jim Cotter and either Mike McEwen or Glenn Howard (one of whom will be the wildcard qualifier) won’t make it easy on the Sault Ste. Marie team.
The Brier is still a big deal, but it’s not the end-of-season finale it once was. There are still two Grand Slam events to go, as well as the world championships, but the winner this week in Kingston will breathe a huge sigh of relief that it gets to spend a week in chilly Saskatoon in December, 2021.
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- Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca
