The World Senior men’s curling champions ofWade White, skip; Barry Chwedoruk, third; Dan Holowaychuk, second; George White, lead and Bill Tschirhart, coach were crowned the 2018 champions after defeating Mats Wranaa’s Sweden team in Ostersund, Sweden on April 28.
“Wade White and his brother George White have roots in Preeceville,” said Ollie Maksymiw, of Preeceville and a school friend. The pair grew up in Preeceville from 1960 to 1972 and are the children of Wayne and Olga White. While in Preeceville, Wayne had worked for the Reliance Garage operated by Gordon Downs and Olga had worked for McLeod’s.
Wade White and his parents all currently reside in Stony Plain, Alta. George White resides in Edmonton.
The Whites are related to the late Gordon Downs and family of Preeceville.
Teammates Barry Chwedoruk and Dan Holowaychuk both reside in Lac La Biche, Alta. Bill Tschirhart, coach, resides in Edmonton.
Wade White, with his Edmonton team of vice-skip Barry Chwedoruk, second Dan Holowaychuk, lead George White and coach Bill Tschirhart, dominated the men’s final game with an 8-2 win over Sweden’s Mats Wranaa, stated the Curling Canada website.
In the final game, Canada applied pressure on the Swedes right from the start, stealing six points in the first two ends to set the tone for the game.
“We executed well, and we got a few misses, but we were curling really well,” said White, who defeated Scotland’s Gordon Muirhead in the semifinal earlier in the day. “We had a really good start in both games. I wasn’t expecting the second three. Wranaa had a pretty hard shot in the first end, but that was a really good start by us. I think he had a cutter rock and didn’t pick up on it for a couple of ends.”
Trailing 8-1 after six, Wranaa conceded in the seventh, giving Canada its first Senior Men’s gold medal since 2014, when Wayne Tallon won the title in Dumfries, Scotland.
“World champion? It’s taken 40 years of curling, it feels good,” said White. “It’s been a battle all my life just to get out of Alberta. I’m going to savour it now.”
