There is a lot at stake for the next nine days at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
There will be 12 of the best women's curling teams in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ vying for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship and those valuable Olympic qualifying points (Canadian Team Ranking System).
The winner of the Scotties will carry ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½'s colours into the world championships at Korea (March 21-29) and then come back as Team ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in 2010 for the Scotties in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
The champion on March 1 will also receive a berth into the Olympic pre-trials in November in Prince George.
For Cheryl Bernard of Calgary and Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon, standing on top of the podium as champions would likely mean a spot in the eight-team Olympic trials in Edmonton. Both Bernard and Lawton have already locked up berths in the pre-trials with their recent performances.
"If our team or Stefanie's wins this, we will be in Edmonton for the trials,'' said Bernard.
"I really don't see the point in worrying about the points right now. Everything will be sorted out by the end of April. I think earlier this curling season our team thought too much about the Olympic trials and that hurt our game. We got a little bit too caught up.''
Defending champion Jennifer Jones and her team from the St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg is the only women's squad with their tickets already booked to the Olympic trials. Coming into this event, Jones and her team of Cathy Overton-Clapham, Jill Officer and Dawn Askin are the favourites. Lawton, Bernard, Marie-France Larouche from Quebec and Heather Strong from Newfoundland and Labrador are expected to be in the mix for one of the four playoff spots.
Strong arrived here late Thursday night after bad weather back home forced a couple of flight cancellations, but now that she is here, she's excited to be get going.
"We're excited to get going. We know the calibre of curling is going to be fantastic," she said
Scotties chairman Chris Atchison agrees.
"Jennifer Jones has to be the odds-on favourite to win this,'' he said. "There are some teams here that I wouldn't have picked back in September but this field is strong. Some of the other top teams are from Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and Newfoundland.
"Tickets are getting a little tight for the closing weekend and we still expect a walk up crowd during the week.''
Completing the field are Marla Mallett from Vancouver, Barb Spencer from Winnipeg, Krista McCarville from Ontario, Nancy McConnery from Dartmouth, Rebecca Jean MacPhee from Charlottetown, Andrea Kelly from New Brunswick and Kerry Galusha from the Northwest Territories/Yukon.
The opening draw is today at noon with Mallett meeting Lawton, the Territories against P.E.I., New Brunswick plays Quebec and Ontario is up against Newfoundland. The second draw follows at 7 p.m.
