By Canadian Press

American skip Jamie Sinclair feels right at home for women’s world playdowns

Mar 18, 2018 | 12:00 PM

NORTH BAY, Ont. — American skip Jamie Sinclair feels quite at home at the world women’s curling championship at the North Bay Memorial Gardens.

Her Canadian curling roots run deep.

Sinclair grew up near Ottawa and teamed with Rachel Homan to win the 2007 Canada Winter Games title. She won Canadian junior bronze in 2013 and skipped Carleton to a national university title in 2014.

A dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, Sinclair moved to the United States for the last Olympic quadrennial.

“I figured it was an opportunity to play on a fully funded team and play on the World Curling Tour,” Sinclair said. “An opportunity to compete on a higher level. It was too good to turn down.”

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It appears to have been a good call. Sinclair has won two straight national titles and is making her world championship debut this week with third Alex Carlson, second Vicky Persinger and lead Monica Walker. 

They topped Scotland’s Hannah Fleming 8-6 on Sunday afternoon to improve to 2-1 in round-robin play.

“It’s a nice position for the opening weekend,” said USA Curling high-performance director Derek Brown.

Russia’s Victoria Moiseeva, Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, South Korea’s EunJung Kim and Canada’s Jennifer Jones shared first place at 3-0.

Jones defeated Germany’s Daniela Jentsch 8-1 in the evening draw. The Winnipeg skip has played only 23 ends over her first three games.

“It is nice to have a couple of short games and try to get as much rest as you can,” Jones said.

Japan (2-1) fell from the ranks of the unbeaten after dropping a 7-6 decision to Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher. South Korea beat Denmark’s Angelina Jensen 7-5 and the Czech Republic’s Anna Kubeskova defeated Yilun Jiang of China 10-5 in the other late games.

Italy, China and the Czech Republic were 1-2 and Switzerland was 1-3. Denmark, Germany and Scotland remained winless at 0-3.

Sinclair had a vocal group of supporters cheering on the St. Paul, Minn.,-based rink over the opening weekend. The 26-year-old grew up in Manotick, Ont., about a 3 1/2-hour drive from North Bay. 

She’s looking to become the first American skip to win world gold since Debbie McCormick’s title in 2003 at Winnipeg.

“We’ve played a lot of the teams in this field,” Sinclair said. “We definitely have a strong shot at getting a medal at the end of this week. That would be the ultimate success for us is to bring home some kind of hardware to the U.S.”

Carlson said the team really found its rhythm at last year’s nationals, when Sinclair beat Nina Roth for the title. Roth earned the qualification nod for the 2017 worlds based on Order of Merit points and edged Sinclair in the 2018 Olympic trials final.

Roth did not participate in this month’s American playdowns. Sinclair beat Cory Christensen in the final and had a short turnaround to get ready for North Bay.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Sinclair said. “I think that’s the best way to describe it.”

Her team has posted some solid results this season, winning the Shorty Jenkins Classic in Cornwall, Ont., last September and taking the US Open crown in Blaine, Minn., a few months later.

Sinclair also played in two Grand Slam events and has risen to No. 16 in the world rankings. Her move to the United States was a big decision, but the carrot of potential international competition was appealing.

She’s also playing in an American curling hotspot and can devote herself to the sport on a full-time basis.

“I could have played on a Canadian team for sure but we would have had to solely rely on sponsorship and really grinding our way through the regionals, provincials and that,” she said. “In the U.S., the depth of field isn’t there and there was the opportunity to be fully funded so that we could afford to travel to (international events).

“You can get the points and then you can get invited to the Slams quicker than you could on the Canadian side. The funding was a big part of it and the depth of field as well.”

Sinclair was poised in the final end against Fleming on Sunday, scoring a deuce for the victory. She was tied with Japan in fifth place after five draws.

Next up for the U.S. team are games against Sweden and Japan on Monday.

“She’s been around the game for a long time, she’s actually a student of the game,” Brown said. “She watches a lot of curling, she practises non-stop. She’s always working.

“Curling is her life really, which is fantastic to have the opportunity to do that, someone so young but talented.”  

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Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press

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