Local farmer Wilf Edgar was on the Canadian senior men's team which won gold at the World Senior Curling Championships in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
The 55-year-old, who lives just west of Innisfail, returned home from the tournament last week with a gold medal after his team defeated New Zealand 6-4 in the championship game on April 20.
“It was an awesome experience that we probably won't get to do again. Since it was our one shot we wanted to make it count,” Edgar said following his return home.
The Canadian men's team consisted of Edgar (lead), Robert Armitage of Red Deer (skip), Keith Glover of Red Deer (third), Randy Ponich of Rocky Mountain House (second) and Lyle Treiber of Red Deer (alternate). Edgar said the players have known each other previously, but only started playing all on the same team last year.
The world championships took place April 13 – 20. The men chalked up nine straight round robin victories and a 7-2 win against Sweden before defeating New Zealand in the finals.
Edgar estimated that they curled before an audience of about 1,200 people in the finals. Edgar said representing Canada at the world level came with a sense of pride, but also with a sense of pressure.
“Because Canada is always kind of favoured there's a bit of a load on your shoulders,” he said. “Everybody tries to beat Canada at curling, just like in hockey. So there was a lot of pressure to curl well and we did curl well.”
Edgar has lived in the Innisfail area all his life. He has enjoyed curling since he was about 10 years old. This was the first time he and his teammates competed at the world level.
“We were happy to get it done,” he said.
The Canadian women's team was also successful at the World Senior Curling Championships. The Canadian women's team defeated Austria 13-1 in their victory.
