Lethbridge Welcomes the World: Russia Update

They will be representing the Russian Federation when play gets underway at the 2012 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship and they all have a deep and abiding passion for the Roarin’ Game. Anna Sidorova, Liudmila Privivkova, Margarita Fomina, Ekaterina Galkina and Nkeiruka Ezekh constitute the Russian women’s curling team for this year’s world women’s shootout. Sidorova, the twenty-one-year-old skip of the team, led Privivkova, Fomina and Galkina to a third place finish at the 2011 European Curling Championships held in Moscow in December. On home ice, they finished 5-4 in the round-robin, before upending Germany’s Andrea Schoepp in a tie-breaker, losing the 3 vs 4 Page game to Scotland and then claiming the bronze medal with a 13-7 victory over Denmark’s Lene Nielsen. The Russian team is selected from the country’s premier curlers in advance of major international competitions. Sidorova and fifth player Ezekh have a history of curling together, while Privivkova, Fomina and Galkina all played on a team which won both the 2006 world junior and European championships. Privivkova, the team’s twenty-five-year-old vice, skipped the Russian women’s team, with Ezekh at third, Olga Jarkova at second and Galkina at lead, to the 2006 Olympics. In Turin, they finished one game out of a playoff spot, with a round-robin record of 5-4. At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Privivkova, with support from Sidorova, Ezekh and Galkina could only muster three wins against six losses in round-robin play. While the Russians have had some success in women’s world junior and European championship play, they have never reached the podium at a women’s world curling championship. This team, which curls out of the Moskvitch Curling Club in Moscow, hopes to make history when play concludes at the ENMAX Centre at the 2012 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship on March 25.