New Zealand’s mixed curling pair from Naseby Anton Hood and Courtney Smith will be testing their skills against the world’s best in the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships (WMDCC) in Sweden from tomorrow, April 20.

The tournament also includes the World Seniors Championships where New Zealand has both men's and women's teams participating.

Courtney and Anton, known as Team Smith Hood, played in this event in 2021 and finished 12th. 

They qualified for this year’s WMDCC at a qualification event held in December last year in Dumfries, Scotland.

A nail-biting last game against Finland that went to the last stone, meant they secured two of their final three playoff games to gain entry to WMDCC.

Pictured are (from left) Anton Hood, coach David Ramsay and Courtney Smith. PHOTO: Supplied 

The 20 WMDCC teams are divided into two groups, and there will be 18 sessions of round robin play followed by semifinals and finals.

New Zealand is in group B with Australia, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Korea, Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden and the United States. The pair face Canada, Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Sweden during the first few days of the tournament. View their schedule here.

The first WMDCC was held in 2008, at Vierumaki in Finland.

The seniors’ competition will see 25 men’s teams and 18 women’s teams competing for medals and the world title. The event is open entry and players must be aged 50 or over on July 1, 2023. 

The New Zealand senior teams are women: Joanna Olszewski, Elizabeth Matthews, Sandra Thomas, Merran Anderson, Pauline Farra and coach Dean Fotti and the men are: Peter Becker, Richard Morgan, Nelson Ede, Murray Pitts, David Greer, and coach John Sanders. 

View the senior men’s schedule here.

View the senior women’s schedule here.

The Kiwi women are in group C with Australia, Denmark, England, Scotland and the United States. The men are in group B with Germany, Ireland, Nigeria, Poland and Scotland.

The tournaments are held in Oestersund, located in Jamtland, in the middle of Sweden. The city is home to over 50,000 people and is the region’s cultural and economic centre.

Oestersund has hosted several world curling events including the World Junior Curling Championships in 1999, 2008 and 2012, the World Junior-B Championships in 2017, the World Mixed Doubles Championship and World Senior Championships in 2018 and most recently, the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2022.

The 2024 World Curling Championship season has marked a milestone for New Zealand teams. For the first time, the women's, men's and mixed doubles sides will all compete, and be able to earn 2026 Olympic qualification points.

Anton is also the skip of the NZ men’s team, who failed to win a match at the World Curling Championships (WCC) in Switzerland earlier this month. It is the second consecutive WCC for the side. In 2022 they finished at the tail of the competition in 13th place,

"We had higher expectations of ourselves . . . we have lots of learning and more opportunities to grow as a team. This highlights the work we must do to compete at this level consistently. It showed what we can achieve when we do play well and put ends together.”

NZ men’s curling team and coaches, pictured are (from left) coach Carolyn McRorie, coach and reserved player Peter de Boer, Hunter Walker, Brett Sargon, Ben Smith and Anton Hood. Absent is coach Warren Dobson. PHOTO: seixeiro photography

Despite finishing 13th again, the NZ men have earned an Olympic qualification point, and although the chance of earning direct entry to Torino 2026 is low, like the NZ women they will have a pathway to the games via other qualification events.

Follow Team Smith Hood on Facebook to keep up with their progress

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