LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Canada is the host team at the 2019 world men’s curling championship beginning Saturday at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge, Alta. Here’s a look at the 13 teams in the field:
CANADA
Lineup: Kevin Koe (skip), B.J. Neufeld (third), Colton Flasch (second), Ben Hebert (lead), Ted Appelman (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 1
Team: Koe is making his fourth career world championship appearance. He won gold in 2010 at Cortina, Italy and in 2016 at Basel, Switzerland. His Calgary-based team went unbeaten to win the Tim Hortons Brier earlier this month in Brandon, Man.
SWEDEN
Lineup: Niklas Edin (skip), Oskar Eriksson (third), Rasmus Wranaa (second), Christoffer Sundgren (lead), Daniel Magnusson (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 5
Team: Edin beat Canada’s Brad Gushue for gold at last year’s world championship in Las Vegas. The three-time world champion also won Olympic silver at the Pyeongchang Games.
CHINA
Lineup: Qiang Zou (skip), Zhiyu Wang (third), Zhilin Shao (second), Jingtao Xu (lead), Dexin Ba (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 54
Team: Zou is making his third career world championship appearance and his first as skip. He finished fifth at the 2017 playdowns.
GERMANY
Lineup: Marc Muskatewitz (skip), Daniel Neuner (third), Dominik Greindl (second), Ryan Sherrard (lead), Benny Kapp (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 146
Team: The rink will be looking to gain valuable experience against the world’s top teams.
SWITZERLAND
Lineup: Benoit Schwarz (fourth), Sven Michel (third), Peter De Cruz (skip), Valentin Tanner (lead), Claudio Paetz (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 9
Team: De Cruz serves as skip but throws second stones with Schwarz taking the last rock. Needed an extra end to get by Yannick Schwaller 8-7 in the Swiss championship.
ITALY
Lineup: Joel Retornaz (skip), Amos Mosaner (third), Sebastiano Arman (second), Simone Gonin (lead), Alberto Pimpini (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 46
Team: The European bronze medallists are looking to build on an eighth-place showing last year.
JAPAN
Lineup: Yuta Matsumura (skip), Tetsuro Shimizu (third), Yasumasa Tanida (second), Shinya Abe (lead), Kosuke Aita (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 21
Team: Matsumura qualified with a 9-7 win over China in the Pacific-Asia final. He finished sixth in his lone previous world appearance in 2015.
SOUTH KOREA
Lineup: SooHyuk Kim (skip), JeongJae Lee (third), ByeongJin Jeong (second), Hyeonjun Hwang (lead), DongHyeong Lee (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 49
Team: Kim needed a last-chance qualifier to book his ticket to Lethbridge. He beat England 7-3 in the inaugural world qualification event in New Zealand last January.
NORWAY
Lineup: Magnus Ramsfjell (skip), Michael Mellemseter (third), Joergen Myran (second), Andreas Haarstad (lead), Steffen Walstad (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 74
Team: Ramsfjell returns to Canada after finishing fourth at the world junior championship last month in Liverpool, N.S. He beat former world champion Thomas Ulsrud in the Norwegian final.
UNITED STATES
Lineup: John Shuster (skip), Chris Plys (third), Matt Hamilton (second), John Landsteiner (lead), Korey Dropkin (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 13
Team: The United States beat Brazil and Guyana in the Americas Challenge last fall to take the second slot in the World Curling Federation’s Americas Zone. Shuster, who captured Olympic gold last year, won the second leg of the Curling World Cup this season.
THE NETHERLANDS
Lineup: Wouter Goesgens (fourth), Jaap Van Dorp (skip), Laurens Hoekman (second), Carlo Glasbergen (lead), Bart Klomp (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 30
Team: Van Dorp earned the second spot at the world qualification event. He played at the last two world championships and is an eight-time competitor at the European playdowns.
RUSSIA
Lineup: Sergey Glukhov (skip), Artur Ali (third), Dmitry Mironov (second), Anton Kalalb (lead), Evgeny Klimov (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 56
Team: Glukhov returns after a ninth-place finish last year. His biggest win came last October when he beat Gushue in the final of the China Open.
SCOTLAND
Lineup: Bruce Mouat (skip), Grant Hardie (third), Bobby Lammie (second), Hammy McMillan (lead), Ross Whyte (alternate)
World Ranking: No. 4
Team: The 2016 world junior champs are the real deal. Trailing only Koe, Brad Jacobs and Brendan Bottcher in the world rankings, Mouat — the 2018 world bronze medallist — beat Edin for the European title last fall.
———
Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
