GUYANA got off to a shaky start at the World Curling Federation (WCF) America’s Challenge, going down to home-side USA 2-13 on the opening day of the event which is being hosted at the Chaska Curling Center in Chaska, Minnesota.

The Guyanese team is led by Rayad Husain, and also features Jason Perreira (Third stones, Blaine, MN, USA), Daniel Toolsie (Second stones, Vernon, BC, Canada), and Baul Persaud (Lead stones, Kleinburg, ON, Canada).

As opposed to two players of opposite gender in Mixed Doubles, the team game is played with four players (men’s, women’s or mixed) and eight stones as opposed to five in mixed doubles. Games are also played at the international level over 10 ends rather than 8.
The competition features three teams from the America’s zone of the WCF – Brazil and USA being the other two – and acts as a qualification event towards the 2019 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta.

The men’s world features 13 teams. Canada as the host country receives an automatic berth. The winner of the America’s Challenge will receive the second America’s zone berth (Europe receives 7 berths, Pacific-Asia with 2).
This year, the runners-up will be invited to a new World Qualification Event, where the final two spots to Lethbridge will be determined. This 8-team event will be played in January in New Zealand.

With three teams in the America’s Challenge, the event will be a double round-robin. Any teams tied with the same record will be ranked, based on their Draw Shot Challenge scores done prior to each game. No tiebreaking games are played.

The Guyana team, due to geographic location and financial considerations, has only trained together for two days, and will be participating to gain experience and evaluate for future years. Thus there is no minimum goal that has been identified.