In another first, one of the World Curling Federation’s newest member associations, Guyana, made its curling debut, with siblings Farzana and Rayad Husain representing their country. Rayad is also the General Secretary of the Guyana Curling Federation, which launched just last year and has the Husains as the only current athletes.
“After we launched the Federation last year, some people in Guyana came up and told us that they’d seen curling on TV, but it’s not really popular yet. Now people are following us here, so hopefully in a few years maybe they’ll really like curling like our neighbours in Brazil have taken to it,” says Rayad.
“This has been a whole learning experience. We’ve actually watched all of these players before and it’s so incredible just seeing them out there. They’re real powerhouses of curling and just being around them is incredible,” adds Farzana.
Even for the more experienced players, the transition has not been easy.
“We have no sweeper, and no skip. So communicating about the ice has been difficult,” says Fujisawa.
“I would like to learn more about the ice and improve the ice-reading as well,” adds Yamaguchi.
So far, Japan have managed to give a close chase to their opponents, losing both their games only by a point. “We’ve lost two games, but we want to play better. Hopefully we can stay long enough for that,” says Fujisawa. “We just need to adjust to the ice, communicate, and keep smiling,” she adds.
While Guyana has also conceded defeat in their matches so far, they are looking forward to the further games. “Brazil would be intriguing to play with, because we do know them, and also it would be the first time that the WCF would have an all-South American game. We’re just honoured to be representing our country for it,” says Rayad.
