Scottish Curling to review selection policy after Team Mouat call for change
- Published
Bruce Mouat - missing out on Olympic gold is still sore
Scottish Curling is to revise its selection policy for major events after Olympic silver medallists Team Mouat were not selected for next month's men's World Championship.
Bruce Mouat's rink urged "robust and transparent change" after their successful appeal was overturned.
Ross Paterson's rink, who won the Scottish Championship, had their place confirmed after a counter appeal.
Team Mouat took silver at the Worlds last year in Canada.
But Team Mouat were not present at the Scottish Championships last month as it clashed with their return from the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Bruce Crawford, Scottish Curling chief executive, said a "fair and balanced" selection process was carried out by the seven-person panel - three of whom have votes - but accepted improvements could be made.
The current selection criteria includes results and performance at the 2022 Scottish Championships, international tournaments, previous performance at major events and readiness to make the play-offs.
"We acknowledge there can be improvements to ensure there is greater clarity for future policies," Crawford told BBC Scotland.
"So we will engage with athletes, coaches and members to ensure that the next selection policy is better than the current one.
"We'll be making representations to the World Curling Federation to see whether the World Championships that follow the Olympics can be slightly later in the year. That would help alleviate some of this pressure.
"We'll identify whether it is a better priority for the teams that go to the Winter Olympics to have that as their focus for that season, and for other teams to be given the opportunity to prove themselves on the world stage in a year when it is not an Olympic qualification year."
On Team Mouat's criticism, Crawford added: "I'm quite happy that they can make that statement. I'm not entirely in agreement with all of the things they've stated, but I think that many of those things will be cleared up in our review.
"We are blessed with three very good teams who are all roughly top 30 in the world rankings, with two in the top 10. So we're in a really strong position as a sport on the men's side.
"And we've got Olympic gold medallists on the women's side, and a different team on the women's side that is going to the World Championships."
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