The Devin Forbes team may not have come away with the gold they had hoped for but coach John Marshall says they have no reason to be disappointed after a strong showing over the weekend.
The team was competing in the 2018 Harding Medical Wheelchair Curling Championship at the Bluenose Curling Club, which saw the teams vying for a spot to compete at nationals.
The Trendal Hubley-Bolivar team from Lakeshore Curling Club in Lower Sackville ended up going home with the gold medals after defeating the Devin Forbes' Bluenose Curling Club in a very exciting final game on Sunday evening at the Bluenose Curling. The final score was 9-7. Hubley-Bolivar will represent Nova Scotia at the Canadian National Wheelchair Championship being held in Leduc, Alta., at the end of March.
“We lost in the finals, but we had a good showing,” Marshall said.
Marshall said overall the event was a great success with a lot of spectators coming out to watch the games. He said it opened a lot of people’s eyes to the wheelchair curling side.
“People don’t realize how much stamina they need to get out there,” he said. “It’s a cold sport when you’re sitting there for a couple hours.”
He hopes that events like this will help encourage others to give wheelchair curling a try.
“There’s a lot of fun and a lot of camaraderie for the folks,” he said.
Events like this wouldn’t be a success without the support of many volunteers, which Marshall said the Bluenose Curling Club has been blessed with plenty of.
“The club is excellent. Everyone is really good to the competitors.”
Already, the club has asked if it would be all right to put in a request to host it again next year.
In the meantime the Pictou County team will continue playing in hopes of winning gold next year.
