Medal games set at 2019 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship

Manitoba’s Dennis Thiessen and Alberta’s Jack Smart will battle for gold, and Ontario’s Jim Armstrong and Northern Ontario’s Doug Dean will decide who takes home the bronze medal after a day of playoff action wrapped up at the 2019 Canadian Wheelchair Championship in Boucherville, Que. Thiessen, the 2017 champion, and his team of Mark Wherrett, Jamie Anseeuw, Carolyn Lindner, Jennifer Balcaen and coach Gord MacKay started their playoff run by stealing their way to a 4-3 win over 2018 national champion Marie Wright of Saskatchewan in the quarter-final on Tuesday morning. With a commanding 10-2 win over Ontario’s Jim Armstrong in the semifinal, Thiessen and the team from the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club in Winnipeg earned their spot in the final.

(Patrick Beauchemin @ Défi sportif AlterGo 2019 photo)

In the other semifinal, Smart and his Calgary Curling Club crew of Martin Purvis, Bruno Yizek, Anne Hibberd, Wendy Frazier and coach Bridget Wilson scored an 8-5 win over Northern Ontario’s Doug Dean and his team from the Fort William Curling Club, setting the scene for a Manitoba-Alberta final on Wednesday. The afternoon draw saw the seeding games vying for rankings for next year nationals. Quebec (Brunet) won 8-2 over Nova Scotia (Hubley-Bolivar), British Columbia (Austgarden) was successful in winning 7-5 over Saskatchewan (Ackerman), New Brunswick (Fitzgerald) was victorious over Newfoundland and Labrador (Carroll) 6-4, and British Columbia (Neighbour) was triumphant over team Quebec (Lessard) by a score of 8-4. The gold- and bronze-medal games will take place Wednesday, May 1, at noon. The complete draw is available by CLICKING HERE. For live scores and standings during the event, CLICK HERE.