Saskatchewan men and Ontario women win 2025 Canadian Senior Curling Championships

Team Bruce Korte of Saskatchewan and Team Sherry Middaugh of Ontario claimed victory at the 2025 Canadian Senior Curling Championships on Saturday at the Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club.

This marks the second Canadian seniors championship for skip Korte, third/vice-skip Darrell McKee, second Kory Kohuch, lead Rory Golanowski and alternate Arlen Hall of Saskatoon. Their podium-topping performance comes after their first title win in 2019 and a runner-up finish in 2023, highlighting a long journey to reclaim the gold.

This year, Team Korte capped off an impressive 11-win, one-loss run at the championships by securing gold with an 8-4 win over Ontario’s Team Mike Harris of Brantford.

“I don’t want to tear up here, but it’s a long haul. The last win was, I think, six years ago. It’s great to have a chance to go to worlds, because we never got the gold last time we won,” Korte said. “We believed in ourselves and in our team. We just trusted that we could do it.”

When Team Korte last won the title, the world championship was cancelled due to COVID-19. This season, however, the Nutana Curling Club team will finally have the opportunity to compete on the world stage.

Team Korte had to peel out a stone in the eighth end to run its opposition out of rocks and earn the victory.

The turning point came in the fourth end. With Saskatchewan sitting six counters, Ontario’s Team Harris tried a back-house chase to score, but the shot failed to curl enough, hitting a centre guard. The stone slid into the house, but Saskatchewan capitalized by stealing three points and building a commanding lead before the fourth-end break.

“We made big shots when we needed them, and we got breaks too. You have to get breaks when you win, right? We got the odd one, or somebody missed when they maybe should have had an end. It’s all a fine line. You’ve got to play well, and you’ve got to get the breaks, and that’s what happened to us this week,” Korte said.

Meanwhile, in women’s action, skip Middaugh, third/vice-skip Karri-Lee Grant, second Melissa Foster, lead Jane Hooper Perroud, and coach Wayne Middaugh of Barrie completed their gold-medal campaign with a 7-5 victory against Saskatchewan’s Team Amber Holland of Saskatoon.

Team Middaugh also came close to winning the national senior title in 2019, earning silver. The victory on Saturday was a reminder of the hard work and dedication it takes to win a national championship, let alone earn the right to represent the province.

“Relieved,” Middaugh said about winning the final and keeping a 12-0 undefeated record intact for the week. “If you’re going to lose one, you want to lose one early. We just felt like we were playing well — not perfect in every way — but we supported each other. If someone made a half shot, we picked each other up. Amber’s team played really well. We had a barn burner of a game against them in the round robin, so we knew it was going to be tough.”

Ontario gained an early advantage by making a hit for four in the second end. Saskatchewan responded with two in the third and stole one in the fourth, tying the game at the break. The teams then traded single points before Ontario scored a deuce in the seventh and ran Saskatchewan out of stones in the final end.

“It was nice that we could play a little bit of offence in the eighth end and make them waste a few shots. We just had to keep coming at them. It was a very good game,” Middaugh said.

Middaugh and most of her teammates will now represent Canada for the first time. Hooper Perroud won gold as lead at the 1996 World Women’s Curling Championship, playing alongside skip Marilyn Bodogh. Ontario is coached by Sherry’s husband, Wayne, a three-time world men’s gold medallist.

Both teams will represent Canada at the ACE & Company 2026 World Senior Curling Championships in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 25 – May 2.

Team Korte aims to extend Canada’s winning streak in the men’s competition, seeking a seventh straight gold medal. The Canadian women will target gold after earning silver at last year’s event.

Both Canadian men and women have earned a world-leading 15 gold medals each at the World Seniors.

In the bronze-medal games, New Brunswick’s Team James Grattan topped British Columbia’s Team Neil Dangerfield 7-4 in the men’s competition. On the women’s side, British Columbia’s Team Shiella Cowan earned a 6-2 win over Nova Scotia’s Team Andrea Saulnier, clinching bronze.

Earlier, in the men’s semifinals, Saskatchewan’s Team Korte defeated British Columbia’s Team Dangerfield 6-3, while Ontario’s Team Harris claimed a 5-4 extra-end win to reach the gold-medal game.

On the women’s side, Ontario’s Team Middaugh earned a 5-3 win over Nova Scotia to advance to the gold-medal game, with Saskatchewan defeating British Columbia 7-3 in the other semifinal.

Saskatchewan now claims its 10th Canadian senior men’s title, tying for third among Member Associations. Ontario’s women, previously tied with Saskatchewan, now stand alone with 12 golds after winning the final.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at: https://www.curling.ca/fr/nouvelles-media/