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World Cup - third leg.

photo: Winners in the women's category - Team Little Kim - Korea.

rn

The men's final of the third consecutive World Cup curling tournament brought together Team Sweden (Edin) and Team Canada (Dunstone). Although some countries sent representatives to this event who are not the absolute best, it did not affect the quality of the men's final. The Swedish team has been one of the very best for many years and is perhaps only missing Olympic gold. The Canadians are always dangerous, except perhaps for the women's team playing here in Jonkoping (Robertson). The usual quality of the overseas selections is confirmed by the win of the lesser known Canadian pair Sahaidak and Lott (finalists at the 2018 Canadian Championships) in the final of the Mixed Doubles category over the pair Skaslien, Ulsrud (Norway). But back to the men's category. The former successful juniors on both sides played an even game and the winners were the two U21 skips Dunstone and Moskowy, with the other two junior skips Edin and Ericson in second place. So systematic work with young players is paying off and after a few years is yielding success. Our young players used to meet these current stars in the earlier period, in the junior championships, but in recent years we are already passing the world's top players by a respectable distance. The Czech junior national teams are showing a slowly declining level and the trend seems unstoppable as things stand. It is also unfortunate that in the Czech competitions there are few players of promising age in the teams seeking any kind of national team contract, while a significant number have passed the age of thirty or are even approaching forty or even fifty. By comparison, there is a seventeen year old curling player from China at the World Cup, a junior rep from Scotland (Jackson - average age under twenty) and very young Korean, Japanese and Chinese teams. The nineteen-year-old Korean girls managed to win this tournament and beat the Olympic champions from Sweden in the final. Compared to the world, we are not keeping up in raising young, competitive players and teams. It is not just curling that has a problem, other team sports are not in a very successful development cycle either. The fault lies in the system and the responsibility lies with those who cling to it for God knows why.