Scots choose Mouat & Morrison for World Curling push

Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat will represent Scotland in the mixed doubles

Former champion Bruce Mouat will represent Scotland at this year's World Curling Championships as selectors stuck with the men's and women's sides who lost their finals at this season's Scottish Championships.

Ross Whyte's rink were hopeful of being chosen after defeating Mouat's rink 8-3 in Dumfries, while Fay Henderson's rink retained their title with a commanding 10-2 win over Team Morrison.

But it is teams led by world number one Mouat and Rebecca Morrison, skipped by Sophie Jackson, who will again be Scotland's represenatives in Canada and South Korea, respectively.

Henderson will, though, travel as alternate, as she did when Team Morrison reached the European Championships semi-finals last year.

Although they lost the national final, 2023 world champion Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan have a dominant lead in the world rankings, with Whyte's rink sitting fourth.

"We really want to top off what has been one of our best seasons as a team with a world championships," Mouat said of the men's event at Moose Jaw, Canada, from 29 March-6 April.

"We were obviously gutted not to win the Scottish, but our stats were good and we just had a couple of bad ends. We feel like our form is really good."

Mouat's rink have won five tournaments on the men's circuit, were European silver medallists after losing to Marc Muskatewitz's Germans and are further clear of the second-placed team in the world than the second-placed team is ahead of 10th.

Olympic gold medallist Jen Dodds, who is also part of Morrison's team, and Mouat will represent Scotland in the mixed doubles event from 26 April-3 May, having won the title in 2021.

Mouat and Dodds have won two more mixed doubles titles on tour this season, taking them to fourth in the world rankings as they prepare for the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in Fredericton, Canada.

All three events represent the final opportunities to gain the points required to earn automatic qualification for next year's Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, where Team GB's women will be aiming to defend the title they won in Beijing in 2022.

At 18th, seven places above Team Henderson, Morrison's rink are the top-ranked British team in the women's world rankings.

Morrison said they will take "a lot of confidence" from their progress to European bronze and will have gained "valuable experience" from their defeat in the national final as they head to Uijeongbu, South Korea, from 15-23 March.

Team Scotland Men: Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell (alternate).

Team Scotland Women: Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair, Sophie Jackson (skip), Fay Henderson (alternate),

Team Scotland Mixed Doubles: Jen Dodds, Bruce Mouat.