Gushue dad-and-daughter team tied for mixed doubles curling championship.
Before the start of this week’s 2020 Newfoundland and Labrador mixed doubles curling championship. Brad Gushue said the entry of him and his 12-year-old daughter Hayley as a team in the event was mostlly about having “have a bit of fun.”
Well, winning must indeed be fun.
Friday night at the Re/Max Centre in St. John’s, the Gushues won their fifth game in a row, defeating the sister-brother duo of Katie and Sam Follet 6-5 in an extra end.
It leaves the Gushues and Folletts with 6-2 records on top of the 10-team standings, with one preliminary draw remaining this morning .
Because of Friday’s result, the Gushues would prevail over the Follets in any standings tiebreaker. So if they win their remaining round-robin game, against another team of siblings — Cailie and Nathan Locke (1-7) — the Gushues would finish first overall and earn a direct berth into Sunday’s provincial final.
The second- and third-place teams will play in a semifinal to determine the other team in the championship game, and there are plenty of other contenders for those spots.
The duos of Mackenzie Mitchell and Greg Smith, defending provincial mixed double champions Jenn Harvey and Dave Thomas, brother and sister (and 2017 champions) Sarah and Ryan McNeil Lamswood, and Sarah Chaytor and Nathan Young are all at 5-3
That logjam is the the result of other results from Friday’s late draw
Harvey and Thomas, who are from Port aux Basques, had a shot at being part of the first-place tie, but lost 8-6 to McNeil Lamswoods of Stephenville in a matchup of west-coast teams.
Young, the recent winner of a mixed doubles gold medal at the World Youth Olympics, and Chaytor also were looking to improve to 6-2, but lost 8-5 to Mitchell, the skip of the reigning provincial junior women’s champions, and Smith, who led Newfoundland’s entry at the 2018 Brier.
Besides Gushues vs Lockes, other games in this morning’s draw (10:30 start) see Harvey/Thomas vs. Andrea Hefffernan/Steve Routledge (3-5); Chaytor/Nathan Young vs.Brooke Godsland/Zach Young; and the McNeil Lamswoods vs Lauren Barron and Greg Blyde (1-7)
