Beaverlodge’s Geoff Walker says he is ready to roll as the 2021 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials kick off in Saskatoon on Saturday. The curler, as part of Brad Gushue’s Newfoundland-based rink, if successful, will represent Canada at Olympics in Beijing in 2022.
Walker says the team had a different approach in 2021, winning two of the three total events they participated in. He says if they can keep up the momentum, he believes they have as good a chance as anyone of winning.
“We are really confident in the way we were playing and we like our chances as much as anybody, [but] obviously with the top nine teams in Canada, you could play this event many weekends over and have different winners multiple times,”
“We are just hoping we can keep doing what we are doing this season, hope we get ourselves into the playoffs and see what happens from there.”
While Walker has achieved tremendous success in other tournaments, including becoming a three-time Brier winner, however, Olympic qualification has remained out of his grip. Having lost in pre-qualifying in 2013 and in the semi-final of qualifying in 2017, he’s thrilled to be able to get the chance to return to try and reverse that.
“Last time we would have gone in as probably the favourite coming off the Brier championship and a World Championship… but as a favourite, you may only still be winning it 30 per cent of the time.”
“Obviously, it’s hard to get over, but we felt we put another four years in, and tried to put ourselves in that position again, and hopefully we will have a better result,” he adds.
The Olympic trials will run until November 28th.
