Record number of teams to compete at B-Curling Champs

A record fifteen teams will take part in the World Wheelchair B-Curling Championship 2015 which will get underway at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland, on Saturday (7 November).

The teams will compete for the two remaining spots at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2016 next February in Lucerne, Switzerland.

For the event in Lohja, the teams have been spilt into two groups:

Group A: Denmark, England, Estonia, Japan, Korea, Latvia and Scotland

Group B: Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden

Estonia, Israel and Lithuania are competing officially at the event for the first time, with England returning to the event for the first time since 2007. Norway, Scotland and Sweden were relegated to the B event from the 2015 World Championship.

Both groups will play a round robin series, with the top three teams in each group proceeding to the final stages. The top-ranked team from each group will qualify directly for the semi-finals. The second and third placed teams will play qualification games for the two other semi-final spots.

The winners of the semi-finals will play in the gold medal game and will qualify directly for the 2016 World Championship in Lucerne. The losers of the semi-finals will play for bronze medals.

The round robin runs through to Wednesday 11 November, with the qualification games on Wednesday evening at 18:00 local time (EET). The semi-finals will take place on Thursday 12 November at 09:00 and the medal games will be staged at 14:30.

The World Wheelchair B-Curling Championship is an open entry event. Any World Curling Federation (WCF) Member Association can enter a team if they have not already qualified for the next World Wheelchair Curling Championship. Teams must be comprised of male and female players. The game is governed by the Rules of Curling with only one modification - no sweeping is allowed. Games are eight ends in length. Currently there are around 30 of the WCF’s 54 Member Associations that are wheelchair curling.

The World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2016 will take place in the Eiszentrum Luzern, a multi-sports venue with a four-sheet curling facility between 21 and 28 February.

Teams that have already qualified for the 2016 World Championships are: Russia, China, Finland, Slovakia, USA, Canada, Germany and Switzerland as host.

More information about the event is available at the World Curling Federation’s website.

The World Wheelchair Curling Championships 2015, 2016 and 2017 serve as the qualifiers for the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games wheelchair curling competition.

In June, the International Paralympic Committee announced that the 2018 event would be extended to allow 12 wheelchair teams to compete, rather than 10, as in previous Paralympics.