Grassroots curling collided with Olympic star quality at the weekend.
Olympic gold medalist and two-time women’s world champion curler Jennifer Jones and her husband, Olympian and three-time Canadian champion Brent Laing, were in Naseby to coach at a curling training camp on behalf of Curling New Zealand.
The three-day camp was an opportunity to learn from the experienced Canadian duo, with novice and junior curlers joining them on the ice on Friday followed by the under-21 and more experienced curlers at the weekend.
It was not the pair’s first trip to Naseby — both competed at the 2017 New Zealand Winter Games.
"We’re here to coach and just share some of our experience and knowledge. We jumped at the chance because it literally is one of our favourite places to visit," Jones said.
"The curling culture here is thriving ... it’s got the grassroots, the love of the game, just the community coming together to really make curling shine and it’s really the starting point.
"You know one day we’re going to watch a lot of these young people on TV, they’re going to be the next rising stars of curling and it’s really exciting for us to give back to a sport that we love so much ..."
Laing said it was great to be helping New Zealand Curling grow the sport and equip players with coaching.
"New Zealand has had some good results over the years — I think just the numbers are not at a place where they can consistently pump out the results that they want and that they’re capable of. In a curling sense, it’s a country on the rise ... looking to expand into the Olympics on the regular ... it’s great to be a small part of helping them do that."
The pair coach again in Naseby this weekend with teams from the Australian Curling Federation.
