First world championships in Europe for Walker, Team Gushue starts Saturday

“This will be our first world championship in Europe. Every other time we’ve went it’s been either in Canada or the two in Las Vegas. In 2020 when we won, it was scheduled to be in Scotland and that was the year of the pandemic, so it was cancelled.”

Walker is looking forward to playing in his first world championship in Europe.

“We’ve been fortunate to play in front of mostly Canadian fans obviously when it was in Canada and again, when it was in the U.S., it would be mostly Canadians down there, so it’s going to be different.”

“From what we hear, it’s a smaller venue. It’s already sold out, so it should be a different atmosphere for sure. I’m not sure what it’s going to be like. It’s going to be something new for all of us to experience.”

Walker says there are a lot of good teams taking part this year.

“You look at, obviously, Niklas Edin (Sweden) who’s had a lot of success at the worlds, goes every year, so he knows what to expect and can prepare for it. Scotland, with Bruce Mouat’s team, the defending champs who beat us last year in the final and then you’ve got Italy (Joel Retornaz) who cam eon the scene the last couple years and then this year, is the Number 1-ranked team in the world.”

Canada will play Czechia and Germany on Day 1. Game times will be 7 a.m. and noon Alberta time respectively.

Other countries sending teams are Germany, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the U.S.

by Curtis Galbraith

First world championships in Europe for Walker, Team Gushue starts Saturday

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