Meet Iveta Stasa-Sarsune, everyone.

Iveta… meet everyone.

This gal has played quite well for Latvia at the past two World Mixed Doubles Championships (in Italy and Finland, respectively) but she and her teammates took it to another level at the 2009 Le Gruyere European Curling Championships in Aberdeen, Scotland this past week.

Team Latvia won the B-pool and then defeated Finland (skipped by TCN correspondent Katja Kiiskiken) in a best of three World Challenge series to qualify for the 2010 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

This remarkable result comes on the heels of a recent medal scored by the Latvian men’s team, in the B-pool of the 2007 Europeans at Fuessen, Germany.

Congratulations to Iveta and all curling-mad Latvians! If your cheering squad is anything like that of the legendary Latvian hockey fans, Swift Current will be rocking out!

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Some newbytes today from The Fed, otherwise known as the World Curling Federation.

WCF has announced that the City of Esbjerg, Demark (photo by Galen R. Frysinger) will host the Capital One World Women’s Curling Championship in 2011.

The event will be staged in the heart of the North Sea harbour city, Denmark’s fifth-largest, in an ice arena complex from March 19-27 in 2011.

“The World Curling Federation is delighted to announce that the Capital One World Women’s Curling Championship 2011 will take place in Denmark” said Les Harrison, WCF President.

Speaking on the fringe of the Olympic Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark where the official announcement was made, Harrison added: “The choice of Esbjerg is recognition of the outstanding achievements and contributions made by Danish curlers and the Danish Curling Association to the development of curling at an international level in recent years.”

The Danish women’s team, skipped by Angelina Jensen, won the bronze medal at the Mount Titlis World Women’s Curling Championship 2009 in Gangneung, Korea and also scored silver at the 2007 Worlds in Aomori, Japan. Denmark has qualified to send men’s and women’s curling teams to the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in February 2010.

Meanwhile, Swiss-based cheese titan Le Gruyère has renewed its WCF partnership, and will continue to sponsor the Le Gruyère European Championships over the next two years, starting with the 2009 shootout in Aberdeen, Scotland in December and the 2010 competition in Champéry, Switzerland.

Bruno Marty, representing the WCF agency Infront, said: “The partnership between WCF and Infront is proving itself to the satisfaction of both parties. In our first year of involvement, all sponsorship inventories have been sold and television coverage is increasing. We are pleased at this convincing demonstration of the value of working with an experienced sports marketing company – the WCF is assured of financial stability to support future growth in the sport.”

The Gruyère announcement can be read here, while the Danish Worlds announcement can be seen here.

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The European Mixed Curling Championship 2009 is nearing its climax in beautiful Prague, Czech Republic.

Some four years old now, the event is the second-largest competition on the ECF (European Curling Federation) calendar, after December’s men’s and women’s Le Gruyère European Championships.

After nearly a week of competition, the host nation has made it through one tiebreaker (beating Russia) and faces defending champions Germany in a bid to battle Scotland in Saturday’s semifinals.

The other semi will see England face off against Denmark. The Danes won the title two years ago.

Countries from the United Kingdom seem to do well in traditional Mixed discipline. Last year’s champions hailed from… Wales!

The website is a typical example of Czech enthusiasm for curling. Attractive in design and functionality, it includes some wonderfully atypical photographs, above and here and here (courtesy of Mr. Volfik) as well as a daily video for your enjoyment (courtesy of Josef Podrabsky).

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After the sad news from Saskatoon (see previous blogpost) we simply must get the holiday spirit rolling again.

As such, check out these Christmas curling fans.

These are actually competitors… the French men’s team skipped by Thomas Dufour, along with some of their women’s counterparts, watching championship action at the recent Le Gruyère European Championships in O’vik.

These guys are developing quite a reputation for unusual wardrobe choices. At the last men’s worlds in Grand Forks, they all sported crazy Caribbean-style straw hats. It looked even funnier when Dufour was called out to the ice – hat and all – to receive the Collie Campbell Award, as the athlete who best combined sportsmanship with playing ability.

So what could be planned for the 2009 Ford Worlds in Moncton, we wondered?

“We already know,” said second Richard Ducroz, whose face is exposed – !! – in the photo.

“But we are not telling anyone. It’s a good one!”

And in other Christmas Curling News:

• The infamous video from the inaugural Santa Curling Championships in Kent, England is rapidly making the rounds across the world. But only The Curling News can show you each incarnation.

First, there’s this report, but there is also a second report, from ITN, featuring different interviews. Finally, there’s some of the source video with natural sound, located here.

• Bob Cowan and company offer a Merry Merry from Scotland, and we echo his call!

• So does the gang in Virden, Manitoba …

• Here’s a nifty Christmas Curling T-shirt …

• These guys held a recent Christmas Curling Extravaganza …

• This Christmas curling videogame WAS quite cool, but is no longer available (sob) …

• This looked to be quite the event, too …

• And what happens when the ice gives way? Why, we have Santa polar bears, of course …

• Finally, don’t forget to rent Santa’s Slay, a rather hideous film which explains the true story of Santa Claus; how he is really the son of Satan, who used to go on a killing spree every Christmas until an angel took on human form and challenged him to… a curling match.

Seriously. We are not making this up.

The angel in disguise won the match, and by the terms of their agreement, Santa was forced to spread joy on Christmas instead of death for a thousand years. And wouldn’t you know it, a thousand years is up … today!

Unbelievable, we know.

Merry Ho Ho, everyone!

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ÖRNSKÖLDSVIK, Sweden – Here we are, all prepared to write a blogpost on the music which organizers at the Swedbank Arena – home of the A-Division of the Le Gruyère European Curling Championships 2008 – have chosen to play for us every single day, over and over… and we suddenly hear the sound of recent (watered-down) Bon Jovi just as Scotland and Germany are finishing their semifinal warm-ups.

Whatever. Let us proceed anyway.

Readers will recall last year’s ECC in Fuessen, and the deliberate attempts to drive us crazy by playing one song in the anres over and over and over and over and over and over between all the games, day after day, over and over and over and over again.

This time, up until Bon Jovi a few minutes ago, all we heard here in northern Sweden was the famous 1992 album by R.E.M., Automatic For The People.

We thank the organizers for changing the music today. We should also say that we’re not as upset as we were a year ago, because in this case they are playing an entire CD, and not just one song, over and over and over and over and over. Again.

In conclusion:

1. The best R.E.M. album is a tie between Lifes Rich Pageant and their debut, Murmur, which has just been re-released (and with a rare 10 out of 10 ranking from PopMatters);

2. We did a blogpost mentioning (and pucturing) Jon Bon Jovi back in February, remember?

3. Here is last night’s report from ECC 08, and European viewers can watch Scotland versus Germany (men’s) right now, and Sweden versus Denmark in the women’s semi at 18:00 GMT via the Eurosport Player online web TV portal, with special discounted rates available for selected countries.

The championship finals are tomorrow!

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The 2006 Olympic silver medal skip, Markku (M-15) Uusipaavalniemi, has arrived in O’vik (Örnsköldsvik) for the Le Gruyère European Championships. He arrived in silver-plated sleigh pulled by Finnish reindeer and accompanied by a convoy of 200 portable saunas.

Well, no, not quite.

But M-15 is now in Sweden, cheering on the Finnish men’s and women’s teams which are both toiling in the B-Division. And that rather ludicrous paragraph about sleighs and saunas was directly inspired by the rampant online craziness the tech-savvy Finnish people unleashed on the world at the height of Markku Mania in 2006.

It’s great stuff. And very, very weird. Like this one titled Emperor Uusipaavalniemi and the Klingons in peace talks.

And this one, Uusipaavalniemi Industries enter eCurling market, where M-15 “has a unique vision of the future of curling. He believes the next Olympic curling in 2010 will take place on screen rather than on ice. Using modern technology Uusis can streamline logistics and focus on the core business – humiliating Canada using the LAST STONE.”

Then of course there was the infamous Uusis: You Are Mighty webpage which, sadly, doesn’t exist anymore. Too bad, because that one was unbelievably weird.

As the English-born journalist William Moore, who lives in Finland, told us that year:

The You Are Mighty page is simply an indication of the early-adopter computer smarts of the Finns. Markku Uusipaavalniemi is also already being heavily “photoshopped” by the crowd that do that sort of thing. Finns are into technical stuff.

(See mock computer game cover image above)

There was even one quote from a chat room that went something like: “This Uusipaavalniemi guy has been some use after all. I told the kids that Uusis had to keep a night light on by his bed, because the dark was scared of Uusis, and now the kids aren’t scared of the dark any more, because Uusis isn’t.”

Indeed, that one reminds us of the classic Chuck Norris tough-guy jokes, which were then incorporated (of course) by Uusis’ growing legion of fans/jokesters.

Some others we love:

• UIOC takes great leap in basic calculus – “The Uusis Institute of Curling today published their latest endeavor on solving the mysteries of basic calculus…”

• Judgement Day – “Finnish people face the morning of the SHOWDOWN with mixed feelings. Intelligence indicates that the Finnish Curling Force is facing a difficult challenge – the Canadian Curling Army outnumbers the finns a thousand to one. Led by Marshal C.G.E Uusipaavalniemi and armed with STONES and BROOMS the thousand fFnnish curling enthusiasts face a million Canadians…”

• Definition of Uusis – “Renowned for his piercing stare and accuracy. Famous for leading the coveted Curling-Lifestyle.”

• Markku Uusipaavalniemi receives Markku of the Year award – “The award is given on the basis of SHEER AWESOMENESS. It is known around the world and is often compared to the Nobel prizes. ‘Cowabunga!’ comments Uusipaavalniemi. Markku has won each time the prizes have been awarded. Go Uusis.”

• Markku performs hostile takeover of Ferrari S.p.A by accident – “Earlier this morning there was unfortunate mishap in Italy. The Finnish Olympic curling team, lead by ‘Massimo’ Uusipaavalniemi, were conducting some undercover training to avoid Canadian spies. Even the GREATEST PEOPLE EVER sometimes make mistakes and this was the day for Uusipaavalniemi: Markku made the mistake of confusing a RED Ferrari Enzo sportscar at FULL SPEED for a RED Canadian curler. His last stone tore the Ferrari in half…”

Anyway…

M-15 is a very politically-correct politician these days, so he’s probably happy to see much of the online madness slowly disappearing from the world wide web. To be replaced, of course, by his own very political website.

And as far as we know, M-15 still owns the curling club which he partially financed and built prior to his 2006 success. And because of this he would really, really like to see the Finnish men, in particular, make it back to the Olympic Games in 2010.

The odds are against them, but the odds were against Uusis back in the fall of 2005, too (look for “Two incredible stories to tell”). In similar fashion, Kalle Kiiskinen’s team needs to make it all the way out of the Euro B-Division to challenge Sweden in a best-of-three for the final spot at the Ford Worlds in March… and then they have to do really well in Moncton to qualify for Vancouver.

But as Uusis proved almost three years ago, anything is possible… when You Are Mighty!

And some more …

• Speaking of Finland, this curling feature is a decent read …

• Speaking of the ECC 08, this is the local Allehanda interviewing Anette Norberg (in Swedish) …

• Here be a YouTube video on construction of the 2010 curling venue, called Vancouver Olympic Centre …

• Say what? Jim Bender wonders if Mixed Doubles “could kill curling” …

• This curling column by Steve Buist calls attention to skimpy playdown signups (what else is new?) and an endorsement of Curling Etcetera …

• Jumpin’ Joe Pavia also endorses the book in this column, plus the newish Granite 2 curling computer game, which is making a welcome return to the public eye… er, computer mouse …

• Here’s a curling primer from a place we haven’t heard of before: Wenatchee, Washington …

• DID YOU KNOW: that stones from a former Ottawa-area club have ended up in North Carolina? Anyone care to guess the name of the now defunct Ottawa-area club?

• 70-year-old Ontarian Tom Howat is off to Scotland …

• And finally, this reporter tried curling, and is in a world of hurt as a result. Respect! (And try it again sometime!)

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