The teams have been announced for the 2012 World Financial Group Continental Cup, presented by Monsanto, which will be held in Langley, British Columbia, January 12-15, 2012. The complete press release is here.Six teams from North America will compete against six teams representing the rest of the world playing Team Games, Mixed Doubles, Singles, Mixed Skins and Skins Games.
Scotland's Eve Muirhead and Tom Brewster will skip two of Team World’s sides. The others will be skipped by Niklas Edin (Sweden), Thomas Ulsrud (Norway), Anette Norberg (Sweden), and Bingyu Wang (China).
The captain for Team World will be former world champion David Hay from Scotland while Sweden’s Peja Lindholm, a three-time world champion, is coach.
Team North America will be represented by four teams from Canada - skipped by Jeff Stoughton from Winnipeg, Glenn Howard from Coldwater, Amber Holland of Kronau, Saskatchewan and Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon and two teams from the United States - skipped by Pete Fenson of Bemidji, Minnesota and Patti Lank of Lewiston, New York.
Their captain will be former world champion Julie Skinner of Victoria, British Columbia, while three-time Canadian Men’s Champion and two-time world champion Rick Lang of Thunder Bay will return as coach.
In 2012 the winning side will receive $52,000 CDN ($2,000 per member, including captain and coach), while the losing side gets $26,000 ($1,000 per member, including captain and coach). In addition, the side which wins the final Men’s Skins game receives an additional $13,000.
The Canadian sports channel TSN will provide complete coverage of the event, which is being sponsored for the second consecutive year by World Financial Group.
The World Financial Group Continental Cup, which was staged for the first time in mid-January this past season, after previously being conducted in late November/early December, is a joint venture of the Canadian Curling Association, World Curling Federation and United States Curling Association. The event website is here.
Here is the full list of participants:
TEAM WORLD - MEN
BREWSTER (SCO)
Fourth/Skip: Tom Brewster
Third: Greg Drummond
Second: Scott Andrews
Lead: Michael Goodfellow
ULSRUD (NOR)
Fourth/Skip: Thomas Ulsrud
Third: Torger Nergård
Second: Christoffer Svae
Lead: Håvard Vad Petersson
EDIN (SWE)
Fourth/Skip: Niklas Edin* (Skip)
Third: Sebastian Kraupp
Second: Fredrik Lindberg
Lead: Viktor Kjäll
TEAM WORLD - WOMEN
WANG (CHN)
Fourth/Skip: Bingyu Wang (Skip)
Third: Yin Liu
Second: Qingshuang Yue
Lead: Yan Zhou
MUIRHEAD (SCO)
Fourth/Skip: Eve Muirhead
Third: Anna Sloan
Second: Vicki Adams
Lead: Claire Hamilton
NORBERG (SWE)
Fourth/Skip: Anette Norberg
Third: Cissi Östlund
Second: Sara Carlsson
Lead: Lotta Lennartsson
Team Captain: David Hay (SCO)
Team Coach: Peja Lindholm (SWE)
TEAM NORTH AMERICA - MEN
STOUGHTON (CAN)
Fourth/Skip: Jeff Stoughton
Third: Jon Mead
Second: Reid Carruthers
Lead: Steve Gould
HOWARD (CAN)
Fourth/Skip: Glenn Howard
Third: Wayne Middaugh
Second: Brent Laing
Lead: Craig Savill
FENSEN (USA)
Fourth/Skip: Pete Fenson (Skip)
Third: Shawn Rojeski
Second: Joe Polo
Lead: Ryan Brunt
TEAM NORTH AMERICA - WOMEN
LAWTON (CAN)
Fourth/Skip: Stefanie Lawton
Third: Sherry Anderson
Second: Sherri Singler
Lead: Marliese Kasner
HOLLAND (CAN)
Fourth/Skip: Amber Holland
Third: Kim Schneider
Second: Tammy Schneider
Lead: Heather Kalenchuk
LANK (USA)
Fourth/Skip: Patti Lank
Third: Nina Spatola
Second: Caitlin Maroldo
Lead: Molly Bonner
Team Captain: Julie Skinner (CAN)
Team Coach: Rick Lang (CAN)
