Jet-setting Perthshire curlers have embarked on their latest fantastic experience on the world stage.
Three up-and-coming talents from the region headed Stateside for Lake Placid earlier this week ahead of hitting the ice for Great Britain at the FISU Winter World University Games (WUGS).
Mark Watt, of Auchterarder and who attends The Open University, is competing alongside James Craik (University of Stirling), Angus Bryce (The Open University), Alexander Haswell (University of Strathclyde) and Jack Carrick (Glasgow Caledonian University).
Watt has hot-footed it over the pond following a wonderful four days of competition at the Mercure Perth Masters, held last week at the Dewars Centre.
Competing with Team Craik, he navigated through the round robin format and then all the way to the semi-final of the high-profile tournament.
The impressive run was eventually ended by Italy’s Team Retornaz, who were then edged out in the showdown match by Olympic silver medallists Team Mouat.
Watt’s team-mate and skip, James Craik, said: “We had a great run last week and it really did give us a boost, because this was one of the strongest fields we’ve played in at Perth Masters.
“To finish off in a semi-final spot was really, really good and shows good promise for the week ahead.
“Beating these higher ranked teams who are playing in and winning Grand Slams and challenging them on a consistent basis is showing the progression we’re making out of the juniors and that we can compete with all the rest of these top men’s teams, which is very encouraging.”
Watt’s sister, Laura Watt, was also on the plane bound for America and will line-up with familiar faces in Team Henderson, who she plays with all the time.
Perth’s Holly Wilkie-Milne is part of the team in Lake Placid, as are Fay Henderson, Robyn Munro and Lisa Davie.
Team Henderson, too, warmed-up for the Winter World University Games by participating in the Perth Masters last week where they just missed out on a place in the play-offs.
Skip Fay Henderson said: “We had a good run at the Perth Masters with three wins and two losses against a pretty good standard of teams.
“We just missed out on play-offs, but our performance has still given us a confidence boost, competing well at senior level, which is the standard we’ll have to compete at heading out to the World University Games.”
The Winter World University Games is the largest multi-sport winter event in the world, after the Winter Olympics.
University students between the ages of 17 and 25 are eligible to enter.
The 11-day international festival and competition combines high-level sport with educational and cultural events, all taking place in Lake Placid and nearby towns.
Action started yesterday (January 12) and runs until January 22.
