Canada to host world championship in 2013

THE Canadian city of Victoria has been awarded the 2013 Ford World Men’s Curling Championships, it was announced last night. The championship will be held at the 6,500-seat Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre from 30 March to 7 April, 2013, the same venue which hosted the successful 2005 Ford World Men’s, in the first year when the men’s and women’s world championships were once again separated.

It will be the 21st time that Canada has staged the World Men’s championship since 1959, the fifth time it has been hosted by the province of British Columbia (1966, 1987, 1998 and 2005) and the second time in Victoria. Canada has won a leading 33 world men’s titles since 1959, and are currently the reigning champions, having won in 2011.

Twelve of the top men’s curling teams in the world will compete at the event where World Curling Federation member associations will also earn qualifying points for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

The 2012 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship will take place from 17-25 March in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, while the 2012 World Men’s Championship will be in Basel, Switzerland, (31 March to 8 April). The 2013 World Women’s Curling Championship has been awarded to Riga in Latvia.