Indian teams leave their mark on the ice of world curling
The first All-Continental Curling Championship, recently held in Calgary, Canada, was hailed as a success by almost everyone involved.
Certainly, title winners Japan and Canada have every reason to celebrate, as do B-Division winners Chinese Taipei Women and Guyana Men, as both teams advanced to the A-Division next season and qualified directly for the World Cup. .
There were other notable elements scattered throughout the event, and one of these was the continued rise of India.
Playing in only the second WCF National Championship in their history, India registered their first men’s victory in the history of the PCCC B-Division inaugural season, defeating Kazakhstan 7-6 in a close encounter.
This comes after India’s first international appearance a few weeks earlier when they participated in the World Mixed Curling Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland and registered three victories. They beat Slovenia and Portugal, both with one-point extra-end wins, and also enjoyed a less stressful 6-3 win over New Zealand.
In Calgary, the Indian men’s team, comprising skip PN Raju, third baseman Girithar Anthay Suthakaran, second baseman Vinay Goenka and lead Kishan Dharmendra Vasant, backed by Canadian coach and friend Darren Moulding, followed up their opening win with four more round-robin wins against (after (in order) Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kenya.
This put them second in the table and they faced Kazakhstan again in the semi-finals where they again won 9-3 before facing Guyana in the final.
Guyana won that final 8-5 and India walked away with the consolation silver medals in their first ever men’s team championship.
Apart from being released in both the men’s and mixed teams, PN Raju also contributed to many other efforts aimed at accelerating the development of Indian curling.
After the opening win over Kazakhstan, he said: “We’ve been playing together for over five years and this is our first WCF tournament. We put in a lot of work and effort, so it’s great that all the effort is paying off.”
Seeking to put the competitive achievements of Indian curling in a larger perspective, he added, “For a country like India in a winter Olympic sport, this is a great achievement.”
And Raju is pleased with the other curling progress India has made, explaining, “It has gone well. We were able to hold many events in India – floor curling and ice curling. In January and March, we held two ‘learn-to-curl’ events in the Kashmir region. 400 people gathered and it was great. In the end, we held a small national championship and we plan to do it again in January.”
It also highlights a major milestone for the sport. “Curling has been recognized by the Government of India as a sport that will be part of the Indian Winter Festival. Even the government’s recognition is very important,” he says.
In the future, he adds, “Hopefully the future is to compete in WCF events and do well and try to grow the sport at home and with the diaspora. The biggest challenge we have is that the Indian government does not recognize dual citizenship, so we have to find people who live in the countries and have Indian passports.”
So far, the exposure of curling in India clearly shows its popularity.
Raju explains, “If you look at the Winter Olympics, the statistics show that on TV, curling was the most popular sport in India.”
To emphasize the potential that exists, he adds: “The more we compete, the more people we get messages asking how they can participate. We will conduct camps for people living in India and for people who show talent and potential. We did a camp last year and we are planning a few more next year, so hopefully next year we can find more people and grow the base.”
The Indian men were supported by Canadian coach Darren Molding at PCCC and provided some background on his involvement.
“Raju and I met in California in 2016 to play at the Golden Gate Spiel. I saw a lot of talent in him and within a year we became friends. I told him he could come to Lacombe [in Alberta, Canada] and train with me anytime. Raju then asked if he could bring his entire team and we did a training camp. We also had another training camp before this event.”
It is clear that Darren is enjoying his experience with India. He says: “There is a lot of potential there. In my opinion, Raju has all the skills to be a top skip. If there is knowledge and desire, it is definitely possible to be competent.”
And it’s clear that Darren has ambitions for the future of Indian curling, just like Raju. He says, “We want to have some depth in the program where we can have some men’s teams playing in different events – that’s the vision going forward.”
The Indian Curling Federation became a member of the WCF in 2019. Three years later, it’s now making its mark on the championships…and three years from now? Watch this space.
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