Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2026 gets underway in Ostrava

The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2026 began on Tuesday (27 October) evening in Ostrava’s RT Torax Arena with the women’s opening session of round-robin play.

This edition of the championships features a new format following the competition structure changes implemented at the beginning of the season.

The championship is now a stand-alone event with games lasting eight ends and featuring 12 European women’s and 12 European men’s teams determined by the World Rankings.

Prior to the first session of play, the official opening ceremony took place where speakers included the Mayor of Ostrava, Jan Dohnal and the Governor of the Moravian-Silesian region, Josef Bělica — who also threw the ceremonial opening stone. The ceremony was closed with singer Lada Bělašková performing the Czech National Anthem.

The event’s opening session saw ten of the 12 women’s teams take to the ice, where defending champions, Sweden began their competition with an 8-4 win over Estonia.

Sweden opened the game with a score of three points, then scored two points in the fourth end for a 5-2 lead. A steal of two points in the fifth and a single in the seventh was enough to confirm their win.

Host nation, Czechia, faced Switzerland but were defeated 8-3. Switzerland took the early lead with a score of four points in the second end. Switzerland went on to score two points in the seventh end to seal the win.

Scotland’s Fay Henderson © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Scotland opened their championship with a 12-3 win over Denmark. Scotland picked up single-point steals in the opening two ends, before a score of four in the fourth gave them a 6-1 lead at the break. That was followed by a score of six points in the sixth end, before Denmark conceded.

Afterwards, Scotland skip Fay Henderson said, “We feel great. We managed the ice well, we really spoke about paths and I think that was key [to the win]. We just definitely knew the speed a little better than they did to manage the game, a very good result.”

Norway and Italy faced each other with the Norwegians winning, by 5-4. The game was tied 1-1 at the break, before Italy took a lead into the final end following a score of three in the seventh. Norway held their nerve to score two points in the final end and secure the win.

Following the event’s first extra end, Türkiye defeated Lithuania, by 9-7.

Türkiye stole seven points in the first half of this game, taking a 7-0 lead into the break. Lithuania responded with seven points of their own over the next four ends to force the extra end with the score level at 7-7.

Türkiye scored two points in the extra end for the win.

The action returns on Wednesday 28 October with four sessions of round-robin play beginning at 08:30 where the men will take to the ice for the first time.