Northern Ontario to represent Canada at World Junior Curling Championships
Members from Sudbury make up Northern Ontario curling team
Northern Ontario curlers will represent Canada at the World Junior Curling Championships in Sweden next year.
Two Sudbury curlers, Jamie Smith and Lauren Rajala, are part of Team Ladouceur, which won the Canadian junior qualifying event in Saskatoon.
The team secured the title with a 7-6 win over Alberta.
"It feels amazing," said Rajala, who plays second on the team. "Definitely a check on my bucket list."
Rajala said the team formed over the summer, and first played together in August.
She and Smith had played together on a previous team, and they knew the other members, skip Isabelle Ladouceur, lead Katie Shaw and fifth Katy Lukowich.
"So it wasn't brand new, but definitely had to work on team dynamics like any new team," Rajala said.
While the team members come from different parts of Canada, most of them currently live in Sudbury.
Rajala said Ladouceur travels back and forth from the Kitchener-Waterloo region for practice.
"It's a different dynamic, but I like to think that we have made it work and made it work very well," she said.
With the win in Saskatoon, Rajala and her teammates will wear the maple leaf in March.
She said she doesn't know what to expect from the word junior champions, but is excited to represent Canada at the tournament.
With files from Casey Stranges