ONE year ago, Curling was officially introduced to Guyanese (living in Guyana) with the establishment and launch of the Guyana Curling Federation (GCF), an initiative that’s being piloted by siblings Rayad and Farzana Hussain.

Today, the pair are still basking in the glory of their showing in Östersund, Sweden, where they competed at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. It was their first taste of international competition.

“Entering a World Championship one year after our launch in Guyana is a huge accomplishment especially for a smaller country like ourselves,” Rayad Hussain told Chronicle Sport in an exclusive interview upon his return to Toronto, Canada.

Thanks to the Hussains, Guyana was the only Caribbean nation at the games, while being one of two (Brazil being the other) countries from the South American continent at the prestigious competition which featured 40 countries.

“Hopefully this is the beginning of many more championships that we enter in the future, not only in mixed doubles, but in other disciplines like men’s and ladies.  We hope to find and develop more players so that Guyana becomes a consistent participant in World Curling Federation (WCF) events,” Hussain.

At the championship, the Guyanese pair were placed in Group E alongside Canada, Brazil, Germany, Ireland, Austria, South Korea and Czech Republic.

Rayad and Farzana Hussain lost their opening games to Germany (6-8), South Korea (0-11) and Canada (9-3), but rebounded to clinch consecutive wins over Austria (9-6), Ireland (11-4) and Brazil (6-3). In their final group game, Guyana went down to the Czech Republic 1-10.

Rayad told Chronicle Sport that he believes the result for Guyana in Sweden “definitely stunned most of the curling world.  Being a new country, and especially from a tropical country, there are often lower expectations to begin with.

“However, we definitely demonstrated that we know how to play the game, and with some more hard work and determination, we can definitely be a contender in years to come.”

Meanwhile, the duo’s effort at their first World Curling Federation tournament was applauded by many, with the pair being pleasantly surprised, especially with the well-wishers from local-based Guyanese.

“The support that we received from the Guyanese community blew us away! I think when we launched the sport in Guyana last year, most Guyanese that heard about us may have been a bit sceptical and understandably so,” Rayad said.

The Canada-based curling player further pointed out “with our performance in Sweden, I think it has opened the eyes of many that we are serious and have potential, and as such, the Guyanese are following us and seem interested to learn more about what we do.  This is exactly what we were hoping for, and the messages of support fill us with pride and excitement that Guyana is starting to become interested in curling.”

EXPANDING THE GAME IN GUYANA
Given the now profound interest in the sport of Curling, Hussain believes the time is right to develop the sport in Guyana, while adding that “we definitely have plans to continue to develop the sport in Guyana through both our Street Curling rink, and we will introduce Rocks and Rings targeted to the youth.

“One of the challenges we face is time to do both competition and development from Canada, so we will focus on finding some keen individuals in Guyana who share our passion for the sport, and can be trained to take the equipment that we have, to teach and run programmes on a regular basis in Guyana.

“We want Curling to become part of the everyday landscape of Guyana even if the country doesn’t have ice facilities.  So we will endeavour to work with our partners and others in Guyana to make this a reality,” said Hussain.

Looking ahead, it was positively highlighted that seeing Curling become a mainstream sport in Guyana is something the federation is aiming to achieve.

“Our ultimate goal would be to have an ice facility built in the country, but we acknowledge that this is a big dream.  However, if we can inspire Guyanese to watch the sport on TV or the internet, and encourage them to participate either through the Street Curling/Rocks and Rings or maybe travelling to try the sport on ice, then we would be thrilled that others are sharing our passion,” the zealous Rayad highlighted.

GOALS
Apart from seeing the game reaching youths in the school system and have Curling become a part of their overall activities, it is the hope of the Guyana Curling Federation to qualify for the Olympic Winter Games.

“There are no universality invitations, and so our spot would have to be earned — we are going to try our hardest to earn this honour for 2022 in Beijing, but if it doesn’t work, we will try again for 2026,” Rayad said and also mentioned that the federation “would also like to contend for a medal in mixed doubles in the next few years and earn South America’s first medal in world competition.”

“Another big goal is to play in the Americas Challenge event for four-person teams — I would love to qualify Guyana for the World Men’s Championship, which is one of the two most prestigious championships in the World Curling Federation alongside the Ladies World Championship.”