When Jim Armstrong wheeled into Prince George last weekend it brought back many fond memories.
"I've had a long history here for decades, it's almost like old home week," says Armstrong, 61, after a lopsided win at the 43rd annual curling mixed bonspiel at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. " We used to come up here very regularly for cash spiels. Prince George has been very kind to me, it's almost like a second home."
Armstrong's past visits to the city came during his 40-plus years as an able-bodied curler, but last weekend he was with his Canadian National Wheelchair Curling team as they prepped to defend their world championship - won in Prague in 2011 - in South Korea from Feb. 19 to 25.
The Armstrong rink are two-time world champs and are also Paralympic gold medalists from the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver.
"One of the advantages in playing in an able-bodied event is if you miss there tends to be a consequence," says the six-time B.C. Brier representative. "It keeps you a little more focused, which is good. It's good training and gets us sharp."
After multiple knee surgeries Armstrong could no longer curl with his old pals, but his hunger for the game made him decide to give the wheelchair circuit a whirl.
The wheelchair team with Armstrong at skip, third Darryl Neighbour, second Ina Forrest and lead Sonya Gaudet, were sharp, except for one "heartbreaker" of a loss which left them at 4-1.
The loss was to Blair Richards' crew, which knocked the Armstrong rink from the A-event to the C-event.
"We're struggling a little bit," says Armstrong. "In all fairness we haven't played that many games this season that's why we're here. It takes a while to get things back together and back on track."
The Armstrong foursome won the C-event trophy after an extra-end win Sunday over Dave Bryden.
Joe Rea, coach of the Armstrong team, says it was a practice weekend for the crew anyway and he thought it would be more fun for the team to have some competition.
"They're really hard workers and are kind of at the forefront of their sport right now," says Prince George product Rea. "It's giving people here an opportunity to see how well these guys play."
Wheelchair curling began in the late 1990s in Europe and came to Canada in 2002. Curlers can either throw the rock by hand by leaning over the side of their wheelchair or with a stick. The main difference between curling and its wheelchair cousin is there's no sweeping.
"Without the sweeping we can't throw to a spot so we throw to a zone," says Armstrong. "Once it leaves you're stick you can talk to it, but it just doesn't listen. Wheelchair curling is kind of the roller derby of curling because it's got enough misses to keep it interesting.
The selection process for the
Canadian wheelchair team of five or six curlers is selected from a pool of about 30 curlers each year.
Gaudet, a paraplegic after a horse-riding accident 14 years ago, is the veteran on the Canadian team, having began curling in 2003 and won a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Paralympics
in Torino, Italy.
"I'm surprised that I like curling, because I never thought I would," says Gaudet.
The whole team plans on defending their Paralympic gold in Sochi, Russia in 2014.
