Lacombe is welcoming the world this week playing host to the third annual Pan Continental Curling Championships at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex.

The competition serves as a qualifier for the world championships for all World Curling Member Associations from the Americas and Pacific-Asia zones.

The event features 36 men’s and women’s teams from across the globe.

The A-Division includes curling powerhouses like Canada and the United States, while the B-Division features teams from non-traditional curling countries such as Nigeria and Qatar. The B-Division champion gets the opportunity to play in the A-Division next year.

Canadian David Wills is the coach of the Qatar national men’s team. He’s been working with the group periodically for the past six years.

“They have several winter sports that they compete in at the world level,” explained Wills. “Curling is one of them because they have a very passionate manager of the Olympic Curling Federation there. He’s actually one of the people curling with the program. They’ve actually built a dedicated ice facility, just six months ago it was completed, where they have hockey and curling over in Doha, the capital of Qatar. That’s been a wonderful development. They’re still working on management of the facility a little bit, humidity problems, and the heat. It’s working beautifully and ultimately they’ll start to host events and it will be a great thing.”

Wills, a former teacher, was originally in Qatar with an education project when he started working with the national curling program there. Since then he has stayed in touch with the team and has connected with them for the championships held in Canada. Qatar competed in the 2022 Pan Continental Curling Championship but had to miss last year’s event due to budget difficulties.

“It’s a big commitment to jump from the other side of the world for a period of somewhere around 10 days to cover all the costs for our curling team,” said Wills. “Food, accommodations, transportation obviously is very, very expensive but they have the budget this year and so they’re really excited to be here and competing again.”

Wills has been involved with curling for 52 years. He started as a player in 1974 and transitioned into a coaching role about 30 years ago. In addition to the Middle East, Will has also coached in Europe, working with the Hungarian and Spanish programs.

He says, unlike in Canada, there is a very small pool of players to choose from in Qatar.

“We’re somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40 active competitive curlers and developing youngsters as quickly and as many as we can. It’s building and growing. With the new facility, it’s built a little bit more interest in the public eye and that’s made a big difference.”

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The four-member team from Qatar includes a range of skill levels, with players’ experience ranging from less than a year to over 20 years in the sport.

Wills says attending a tournament like this is priceless for the Middle Eastern squad.

“To be in a country like Canada, if you’re from the Middle East, which is a Muslim country where things are very different in terms eating, sleeping, and general daily habits, however, they are excited to be here and to be curling at a level with the other countries. On the other side we have the A’s as well, so we can go over and watch the truly world-caliber curlers and learn. It’s a learning experience and culturally eye-opening experience and a heck of a lot of fun once you get over jet lag.”

Saudi Arabia is the other Middle Eastern men’s team competing in the tournament.

” data-entity-type=”file” data-entity-uuid=”4e46c9a1-544c-4f4e-89b0-156a851565b0″ bad-src=”https://d3355vjhs3bhr1.cloudfront.net/inline-images/flags%20curling.jpg”>The competition features 36 men’s and women’s teams from across the globe. Photo by Cory Knutt

Outside of the rink, Will says the Qatar foursome has been enjoying the local hospitality.

“Lacombe is a very friendly city. I think generally speaking, small-town Canada impresses people from abroad who come from big cities and they’re relatively unexposed to places like this. They’re loving the food, the restaurants, and just how friendly everybody is. It’s a very open and warm community. We just need more people in the stands cheering and making noise.”

Qatar is in the middle of the pack of the B-Division standings with a 3-6 record after nine games.

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