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U.S. Wheelchair Curling National Championship starts Friday in Utica
By Terry Luder
// USA Curling
// December 6, 2006
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Paralympian James Pierce will skip one of the two teams vying for the chance to compete in the 2007 Wheelchair Curling World Championships.
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STEVENS POINT, Wis. - Two wheelchair curling teams will compete to be named Team USA at the 2006 U.S. Wheelchair National Championship beginning Friday at the Utica Curling Club in Whitesboro, N.Y.
Competing are teams skipped by Jim Pierce and Mark Taylor. The teams will compete in a best two-out-of-three competition. The winning team will represent the U.S. at the World Wheelchair Championship, Feb. 17-24 in Sollefte, Sweden.
Pierce (North Syracuse, N.Y.) competed at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games with teammates Augusto Perez (East Syracuse, N.Y.), Jimmy Joseph (Hartford, N.Y.) and Danell Libby (Sprakers, N.Y.). The team won a wheelchair bonspiel in Ottawa last weekend.
Taylor (Deansboro, N.Y.) and teammates (Yorkville, N.Y.), Bob Prenoveau (Chittenango, N.Y.) and Melissa Keiser (New Hartford, N.Y.) competed at the Wheelchair World Championship in 2005 finishing eighth. They have added Tom Hanson (Yorkville, N.Y.) to the team this season.
The winning team will compete at the Wheelchair Worlds in a round robin against teams from Canada, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland. Canada won the wheelchair curling event at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games and Scotland is the defending world champion (There was not a world championship in 2006 due to the Paralympic Games).
Organized wheelchair curling in the United States began in the 1990s at the Granite Curling Club in Seattle. Many of today's clubs are wheelchair accessible or just need minor modifications to become so.
There are several types of delivery of the stone - one-handed over the side of the wheelchair, two-handed with a delivery stick, and one-handed with a delivery stick.
Teams must be composed of a mix of men and women when competing at the national and world level. No sweeping of the stone is allowed in competition. Rather, athletes rely upon arm strength and true aim. Games at the national and world level are six ends in length in accordance with the World Curling Federation's rules of play.
The six-sheet Utica Curling Club will also be the sight for the 2007 U.S. National Championships in February.
USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics, AmerAust Technologies, Nike and The Hilton Family of Hotels as well as by AT&T, General Motors, The Home Depot, and Bank of America through a joint marketing program with the U.S. Olympic Committee.
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