NZ to benefit from World Curling tournament shake-up
| China beat NZ in the bronze medal match at the 2019 Pacific-Asia Championship. This year's event will be the last. Photo © WCF / Tom Rowland |
15 Sep 2021 – "The biggest opportunity for New Zealand Men's and Women's national curling teams in years" is how Lorne DePape, one of two NZ representatives to the World Curling Federation, describes the introduction of the new Pan-Continental Curling Championship to the international calendar in the northern 2022-2023 season.
A minimum of five Men's and five Women's teams from this new event will qualify directly for their respective World Championships. It replaces the annual Pacific-Asia Championship that New Zealand currently plays in, and the annual Americas Challenge.