TFIS curlers bound for Junior Worlds

08 February 2010

sports:

Curling

Forfar’s Kerr Drummond and Perth’s Steven Mitchell are bound for the World Junior Curling Championships in Flims, Switzerland (March 6-14) after helping Team Fraser win the Scottish Junior title in Aberdeen on Sunday.

Team Fraser, made up of Drummond, Mitchell, skip Ally Fraser (Inverness) and Scott Andrews (Prestwick), completed an undefeated week with a 9-4 win in the final over pre-event favourites, Perth's Glen Muirhead. Muirhead, finalists in last weekend’s Scottish Senior Championships, contained Kerr’s older brother Greg, who was the fifth member of the Scottish team at last year’s World Junior Championships in Vancouver.

“It was brilliant to go through the competition undefeated,” said 18 year old Kerr. “I can’t explain how good it feels right now to be a Scottish Champion. Our expectation had been to be in the top three with anything more being a bonus. So, to win is a big bonus.”

All four athletes are supported by the National Academy, created to identify and build a wider base of potential curlers capable of challenging for a place in the Elite Squad.

The Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport, part of the sportscotland institute of sport’s regional network, provides integrated support in the form of high performance expertise. Its expert teams work together to support Scottish governing body-identified athletes, delivering essential support services locally in sports medicine, sports science, strength and conditioning, and career and lifestyle guidance.

The combination of both organisations is proving a winning formula.

“I get a huge amount of help from the Academy through Rhona Martin (RCCC Performance Development Coach) and Brad Askew (RCCC Assistant Performance Development Coach),” said Steven. “They’re a great help, organise a lot of training and coaching, analysis and technique support.

“The Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport are a fantastic support. I have had a knee problem for a few years and they have organised MRI scans, given me medical treatment, check ups and regular physio. It’s still painful but it’s been holding out and I’m getting through it with physio.

“The Institute organise my Strength & Conditioning training so we get trained properly and we are all really fit as a result.

“We could tell that other teams last week were getting tired and making mistakes and we were able to pounce on them. We felt we had that edge, more physical edge than the other teams. We all feel it really helps and we have a very high level of fitness. All four of us go to coaching twice a week, then we do our own S&C sessions, and our other sessions.”

Team Fraser has three weeks of training to look forward to before heading to Switzerland for the World Championships. Having three members of the team who already have Worlds experience from last year will be a huge advantage.

“Last year for all four of us it was our first experience of a Worlds,” said Steven. “We had a few games which we should have won but we didn’t and we didn’t get a medal.

“This year Ally, Scott and I will have all been there before. Kerr has played in the European Youth Olympics, so we all know what to expect.

“We feel confident, we played well last week and we know a lot of teams that are going to the Worlds. If we can keep it at a high standard we will be fine.

“We know what we have to do and we are going there with the aim of winning a medal.”