Dumfries and Galloway curlers head for World Championships

Dumfries curler Sophie Jackson is is heading to the World Curling Championships in Canada.

She and Team Morrison have been selected to represent Scotland at the event in Ottawa in April.

And Team Mouat, the national and European champions, were confirmed as the men’s representatives.

The rink – Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie of Kirkgunzeon and Stranraer duo of Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie – is looking to complete a full set of medals, having won bronze on their debut in 2018, then silver two years ago on the most recent of their three appearances.

After that they became the first Scottish men’s team to achieve top spot in the world rankings last year on the back of an unprecedented run.

The squad became the first non-Canadian team to win three Grand Slam of Curling events and they also reached the final at last year’s Winter Olympics.

Mouat said: “It’s always great to get the phone call saying that we’ve been selected to represent Scotland at a Worlds and that was our main target this season, to get back there and hopefully go one better than 2021.

“Winning a bronze at our first Worlds was very exciting and definitely gave us a taste of what to expect in our first season together.

“The drive to go for the gold and to get very close in 2021 was very exciting, so hopefully we can have a really good week, knowing we’re in really good form going into it.

“We had a lot of really good games at the Scottish Championship last week against all the British Curling funded teams. It’s great to see all the talent that Scotland’s got and we’re going to use all the experience we gained there.”

The victory in the nationals at Dumfries took Mouat’s men back to second spot in the world rankings, just behind Sweden’s