Qualification for the 2019 Women's World Curling Championships.
It's a strange mix of feelings. I'm talking about the women's national curling team and this season. A successful entry into a competition of the highest European quality, the European Championships. Then a series of narrow defeats by opponents we usually win against, even though the historical records are very close. In the last match comes a performance upturn which, together with a much needed result on a different track, leaves us unscathed in the long term orbit of Olympic preparation. So far, great and maximum. Eighth place at the European Championships opens the door to our next top competition, the World Championships. And here's the rub. The eighth and ninth place teams from the European Championships, along with six other teams (two more from Europe and four from the rest of the world) have the right to fight for two places at the 2019 World Championships, where there are a total of thirteen participating countries in the starting field. The problem is the venue of the world qualification and, in principle, the date. 17-23 January 2019 in Naseby, New Zealand. In previous years, the ongoing championship still featured a challenge match between the winner of Group B and the country that did not advance directly to the World Championships as the first to qualify from Group A. So at the end of November, the Europeans and Europeans were in the clear. Now, newly, they are not, with the European qualifiers, who have to count on at least five days of acclimatisation each way, having a very short time to decide whether they are going or giving their place to someone else. The estimated difficulty of traveling to a country where it is full summer in January and thus there is no place to train at the venue (just no ice) is extreme. Start of the trip no later than January 9, return no earlier than January 26. The 18-day trip, with a flight from Prague to Christchurch taking around 35 hours with connections, and a five-hour drive to Naseby on the southernmost of New Zealand's two islands, must be factored in.
The qualifying tournament will take place three and a half weeks from today (21 December 2018) and to date, the participating countries have not been announced and there is no game schedule. There is still no information on the World Curling Federation website for this event, except for a summary of WCF sponsors.We would love to make Czech curling visible again with our participation in the World Championships, but this time the decision is really hard.
The Czech women's team has finally decided not to participate in the qualification tournament for the 2019 Women's World Championship (New Zealand, January 2019) with the following comment:
We have carefully considered the entire situation and have consulted repeatedly with our loved ones. The unanimous decision of the team is not to participate in the WQE, for the following reasons:
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the budget for the whole event (exceeding, according to our calculations, the amount of 400.000,- CZK) does not, in our opinion, outweigh the potential benefits of participation. We do not consider it effective and reasonable to invest such a sum of money in this event. (possible participation in the Women's World Championships 2018 will in no way advance the Czech Republic to participation in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games)
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extreme transportation requirements, including on-site transfers, dramatically increase the time required for team acclimatization, quite disproportionately
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Anna Kubeskova's team is approximately in the first third of the Olympic cycle and has two WCT tournaments scheduled for the near future as part of the preparation for the 2022 Winter Olympics, along with the women's extra-league round in the period in question. The two and a half week-long lapse in training and competition is not in the interest of maintaining the team's current performance
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personal, work and study circumstances are also difficult to address
By: We perceive the importance of presenting Czech curling in international competitions, but we do not consider the WCF's decision to hold the WQE in a destination that is not easily accessible for most participants and, moreover, is held in that location out of season, to be a happy one and if we put the pros and cons on the scales, both from the team's perspective and from the perspective of the Czech Curling Federation, the above decision is the result.
signed by Karel Kubeska - coach, Anna Kubeskova, Alžběta Baudyšová, Tereza Plíšková, Ezhen Kolčevskaia and Elishka Soukup
It's a mix of emotions. We give it our best shot, but something is really over the edge for us. Unfortunately.