Sarah Wark’s pursuit of a national women’s curling championship starts this weekend when she takes on Nova Scotia at the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Sixteen teams are in the field, hitting the ice at the 6,658 seat Centre 200 in Sydney, NS.
The tournament runs Feb. 15-24.
Wark is the British Columbia representative, joined by Kristen Pilote (third), Carley Sandwith (second), Jen Russell (lead) and Michelle Dunn (alternate).
They won a provincial championship in Quesnel earlier this month.
Wark and Dunn both curl in a Wednesday night league at the Chilliwack Curling Club.
Team B.C. is in pool A, which includes Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, Northern Ontario, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Nunavut. Pool B includes Newfoundland/Labrador, the Yukon, New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, a wild card entry and Jennifer Jones’ Team Canada rink.
While the rest of the teams had to qualify for the tournament by winning their provincial playdowns, Jones (Manitoba) earned automatic entry as defending champion.
All draws are being televised on TSN and RDS2.
The top team at the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts will represent Canada at the 2019 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship, in Silkeborg, Denmark from March 16-24.
See curling.ca/2019scotties/ for more info.