BC’s Team Austgarden has become the Canadian Wheelchair Curling champion after defeating Quebec 11-1 in the gold medal game.
The victory by the rink, which contained three past champions, means that BC has now won the title five times since its inception in 2004.
The team of skip Gerry Austgarden, from Kelowna, third Darryl Neighbour, second Frank LaBounty, lead Alison Duddy and coach Brad Burton finished third in the pool stage.
The rink, which is based at Richmond Curling Centre, then won a nail-biting extra end victory against Saskatchewan and defeated Manitoba, the reigning champions, 10-3 to secure their place in the final.
Quebec, who won the title in 2013, had qualified automatically for final having lost just one game throughout the pool and playoff stages.
In the gold medal game, Quebec scored a single in the first end before BC applied the pressure by scoring two in the second and then stealing in every end before sealing the win with a four-ender in the seventh.
Speaking after the event, Austgarden said: “I was definitely nervous going into the final. The team played so well in the semi-final and I thought if we played like that again in the final we would have a chance – as it turned out we played even better.”
The BC rink included some of Canada’s most decorated wheelchair curlers as it is the fourth time LaBounty has won gold, whilst Neighbour has been champion twice before and Austgarden was on the winning team in 2006.
Austgarden explained that it was a memorable win, he said: “This win ranks right up there; it is probably the second best experience, only behind winning the Paralympic gold medal in 2006. It’s special because I was the skip and had some good and not so good games throughout the week, but made some very important shots when we needed them
“Also, I was curling with some good friends/great players and I proved to myself that I can still play this game at a very high level.”
