© World Curling / Stephen Fisher

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World Curling Media

5 May 2026

World Championship Pre-Qualifier (Europe) gets underway in Ljubljana, Slovenia

The newly created World Championship Pre-Qualifier (Europe) 2026 opened the round-robin stage of the competition today (Tuesday 5 May) and will see 30 teams representing 25 Member Associations compete in both the men’s and women’s championships for a place in the World Championship Qualifier taking place in November.

The event will take place from 5–11 May 2026 at the Zalgo Ice Hall in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

TEAMS

There are 17 men’s teams split into two groups for the round robin. They are:

Group A: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, England, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovenia, Serbia, Ukraine

Group B: Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia

There are 13 women’s teams split over two groups for the round robin. They are:

Group A: England, Spain, Finland, France, Monaco, Poland, Serbia

Group B: Austria, Belgium, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Slovakia

PLAYING FORMAT

Round-robin play began today and will continue until Sunday 10 May, with the final session for both men and women taking place at 19:00

At the end of the round robin, the top two teams from each group advance to the playoffs on Monday 11 May.

In both genders, the two first-place teams play each other at 09:00; the winner wins the gold medal and qualifies their Member Association to the World Championship Qualifier 2026.

The two second-place teams also play each other at this time, with the winner of that game facing the loser of the 1v1 game.

The winner of this final game, which takes place at 14:00 wins the silver medal and also qualifies their Member Association to the World Championship Qualifier 2026, while the loser of this game wins the bronze medal.

Find the schedule, teams and follow the live scores and results here.

Select games will be streamed live on the Slovenia Curling YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@curlingsi

All times are Central European Summer Time (CEST) which is Universal Coordinate Time (UTC) +2 hours

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