Scots at World Wheelchair Championship

Rosemary Lenton, Jim Sellar, Tom Killin, Aileen Neilson, and Michael McCreadie (above) get down to business today when the 2009 World Wheelchair Curling Championship begins in Vancouver's new Olympic/Paralympic Centre which was only officially opened on Thursday.

The Scots play Canada in their first game later today (Saturday).

Real-time results will be available at wwhcc.curlit.com. Daily match reports and photos will be available at the main WCF website, and there will be reports on the RCCC website from Mike Haggerty from early next week. The event website, with the draw, is here.

I liked the wording on the official press release from VANOC about the new arena, and I share this with you:

"Six thousand spectators can watch the rocks curl and twist at the venue, the largest seating capacity for wheelchair curling in Paralympic Winter Games history. The Government of Canada and province of British Columbia contributed $40.25 million to the centre via VANOC. The curling venue is perched on one of the highest point of land in the city, with views of downtown’s glass towers and the snow-capped peaks of the North Shore mountains. Construction started in February 2007 – the last competition venue for the Games to break ground. The Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre is targeted for the gold standard in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. This eco-friendly venue captures rainwater and siphons it into the building to flush toilets and urinals. The toilets, showers and sinks also use low-flow water systems, reducing water usage by up to 30 per cent. The building is wrapped in a high-performance envelope that helps keep temperatures just right inside for the perfect ice sheet. Heat is reused during the ice-making process and the building is powered by a mixture of electricity, natural gas and solar energy."

So, there you are, watching the rocks curl and twist! Let's Twist Again. The new venue will also host the World Juniors, March 5-15. There's a pic of the arena ready for play here.

Photo courtesy of Tom Pendreigh