The Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland will continue to cement its place as a world class international curling venue when it hosts the second World Qualification Event. The competition will run from Monday 13 to Saturday 18 January 2020.
The next editions of the World Wheelchair-B and World Junior-B Curling Championships will also be held there.
This venue has hosted the wheelchair (2015, 2016 and 2018) and junior B-events (2016, 2018 and January 2019) in recent years.
The World Wheelchair-B Curling Championships 2019 will run from Thursday 28 November to Monday 2 December. Meanwhile, the World Junior-B Curling Championships 2019 will be played earlier than usual in the season, from Tuesday 10 to Wednesday 18 December.
World Curling Federation President, Kate Caithness, said: “The organising committee at the Kisakallio Sports Institute are very experienced in running events and we are delighted that together with the two World-B championships this coming season they will undertake to host our newest qualification competition. We thank them for their continued support of World Curling.”
The first World Qualification Event was held in Naseby, New Zealand, in January 2019. It is for eight women’s and eight men’s teams – one host, one Americas team, two Pacific-Asia teams and four European teams.
The purpose of this competition is to qualify the last two women’s and two men’s teams for the subsequent 13-team World Curling Championships, later in the season. The event in Lohja, will qualify teams for the World Women’s Curling Championship 2020 in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada (14-22 March) and the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship 2020 in Glasgow, Scotland (28 March-5 April).
Similarly, the B-events qualify the top three wheelchair, women’s and men’s teams for the respective world events.
Olli Rissanen, President of the Finnish Curling Association, said: “The Finnish Curling Association are delighted that the co-operation with the Kisakallio Sports Institute and the World Curling Federation will continue with these events. This is still very important for the Finnish Curling, especially from the development perspective. We are as eager to arrange these championships with Kisakallio as we were for the very first time. It is an honour to welcome you all once again to Kisakallio.”
Kisakallio Sports Institute Sales Director, Lauri Ikavalko, said: “It is a great honour to re-arrange these wonderful curling championships. Our cooperation with the WCF and the Finnish Curling Federation has been successful. Together, we have built a very good concept. Looking forward to future championships our goal is to make things even better.”
To engage with the World Curling Federation on social media leading up to the World Qualification Event 2020 follow it on Twitter, Instagram (@WorldCurling) and Facebook (/WorldCurlingFederation) and use the hashtags when posting: #WQE2020 #curling
