It was a storybook run complete with a fairytale ending for Team Saskatchewan at the 2023 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship, who rallied off 11 straight victories to claim the Canadian Mixed crown last season in front of a hometown crowd at Swift Current, Sask.
But now, the collective of skip Shaun Meachem, vice-skip Kelly Schafer, second Chris Haichert and lead Teejay Haichert will trade in its Saskatchewan green jackets for the red and white of the Maple Leaf, earning the right to represent Canada at the 2024 World Mixed Curling Championship Oct. 12-19 at Aberdeen, Scotland.
It’s an especially unique experience for Kelly Schafer who, as a dual Scottish-Canadian citizen, will see the World Mixed championship hosted near her hometown at Aberdeen.
“It’s just so special, especially since it’s so close to my hometown,” said Schafer after the 2023 Canadian mixed win. “It seems like it’s been a long time coming. I’ll be proud to represent Team Canada and that’ll be a new thing for me. The first Canada jacket I’ve had since all the other ones are Scottish.”
After several years of being ineligible to represent Canada without proper citizenship, Schafer is elated to wear the Maple Leaf in the mixed curling format that she originally started with when she immigrated to Canada.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Schafer said. “I’ve played with these guys since I came here. They’re my first mixed team and it was the only thing I was allowed to play. For ten years or something, Shaun and I have been playing skip and third and now with Teejay and Chris, yeah, it’s cool.”
It will be the second time sporting a Maple Leaf for the front end of second Chris Haichert and lead Teejay Haichert, who were members of the last Saskatchewan rink to win a Canadian mixed crown in 2015 with skip Max Kirkpatrick at North Bay, Ont. Team Canada would go on to be a quarterfinal finisher at the 2015 World Mixed Curling Championship at Bern, Switzerland.
“They’ve been there before,” said skip Shaun Meachem of his front-end players. “They’ve got some business to take care of at the world, so yeah, really excited for that.”
Facing a 39-team field, Canada will be slotted into Group A for round-robin play, which features Czechia’s Team Krystof Tabery, England’s Team Andrew Woolston, Hungary’s Team Balazs Foti, Latvia’s Team Kriss Vonda, New Zealand’s Team Brett Sargon, the Philippines’ Team Chad Alojipan, and Turkey’s Team Selahattin Eser.
At the end of the round-robin stage there will be a ranking for first, second, third and fourth position within each group. The top three teams from each group qualify directly for the Round of 16.
Then, the best ranked fourth place team — comparing Draw Shot Challenge (DSC) average amongst the fourth placed teams — will round out the final 16.
The final is set for Saturday, Oct. 19th at 10 a.m., (all times Eastern).
Canada begins its world mixed campaign Saturday at 3 a.m., versus Team Turkey.
Québec’s Team Felix Asselin took home the bronze medal representing Canada at the 2023 World Mixed Curling Championship at Aberdeen, Scotland last October, defeating team Norway’s Team Steffen Walstad 4-3.
Canada remains the global leader in World Mixed medals with five; three gold, one silver and one bronze.
Event information, rosters, and draw can be found at https://worldcurling.org/events/worldmixed/.
