One of the most interesting draws for spectators at the 2019 provincial curling championships in Quesnel will be defending women’s champions, Team Van Osch.
Made up of sisters Kesa, Marika and Kalia Van Osch as well as Amy Gibson; they have their sights set on a repeat.
“We played in a couple less fields this year but we really focused on training,” said Kalia, in a recent phone interview with the Observer.
The team has been planning their season around peaking at the provincials in January.
“We’ve gone for a couple training centres and put in some hard work and we played in spiel out in Ontario recently, so that was our last prep.”
Kalia said the spiels they have played in have gone quite well and she thinks they are gearing up to have a great performance when it counts.
Her sister Kesa acknowledged the competition will be difficult with all the chips on the table.
“Every year you have Corryn Brown, you have Diane Gushlak, you have Sarah Wark; I consider them all our top competition at the moment,” she said.
“Some of the qualifiers are still to come as well and any team can have a great week and be the team to beat. It can be anybody’s game.”
Many of the athletes will be playing on a slightly different surface for these championships as the competition will be held within West Fraser Centre’s arena facilities.
For some it might present some challenges, but Team Van Osch is pleased about the arena ice.
“Playing on it is like playing on elite ice,” Kalia said. “We did some of our training to purposely prep to play on arena ice.
“It has a lot more curl, so it’s very different, but I feel for us that kind of ice brings out the higher level of play and we’re really excited to show that off when we’re in Quesnel.”
The sisters are enthused about playing in Northern B.C.
“I actually played in my first Scotties provincials in Prince George in 2014 and won my first provincial championship, so my first trip to the Nations was thanks to a win in Northern B.C,” said Kesa.
Kalia said she is looking forward to coming to Quesnel too.
“It’s nice to get to play somewhere different,” she said. “We always play on the Island or Lower Mainland or Kamloops, so it will be nice to spend a week up in the north.
“Even if it will be a little bit colder.”
Also new for the provincial championships is the combination of the men’s and women’s events.
“I think fans will get a lot more excitement and interest out if it,” said Kesa, “versus having to go to both events,” which they traditionally have had to, they get to go to one get it all in one package.
“As a competitor it’ll be exciting and as a spectator it’ll be super exciting as they’ll get to see the best in B.C. for both men and women in one place.”
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