MOOSE JAW, Sask. — It has been over a decade since Brad Jacobs has had the Maple Leaf on his back at a major curling event. Putting on Canada's colours again Friday at the Temple Gardens Centre was a feeling that was tough to describe.
"We've been looking forward to this day for a really long time," Jacobs said. "There's nowhere else we'd rather be."
Jacobs, vice Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert will represent Canada at the BKT World Men's Curling Championship starting Saturday.
They earned the spot by winning the Montana's Brier earlier this month in Kelowna, B.C. The Alberta side won four straight elimination games to raise the tankard, capped by a victory over Manitoba's Matt Dunstone in the final.
"I think that goes to show a lot about the character of our group," Jacobs said after the team held a one-hour practice session. "We persevered through a lot of challenges there. We were very resilient. I'm just very proud of my guys.
"It's a dream to skip Ben Hebert, Brett Gallant and Marc Kennedy."
Gallant was on the last Canadian team to win this event, taking gold eight years ago on a squad skipped by Brad Gushue in Edmonton.
Hebert and Kennedy won world titles with Kevin Martin (2008) and Kevin Koe (2016) while Jacobs settled for silver in his lone appearance in 2013. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based skip took Olympic gold at the Sochi Games the following year.
"From what I saw in the Brier, he's the Brad Jacobs of old," said four-time world champion Glenn Howard, who's coaching the Switzerland team this week. "So world, look out. I think the boys believe in him. If you believe in your skip and he's on a roll, that's a pretty good formula."
Top-ranked Bruce Mouat of Scotland and seven-time champion Niklas Edin of Sweden are among the headliners at the nine-day competition along with reigning European champion Marc Muskatewitz of Germany.
Other notable entries include Italy's Joel Retornaz, Korey Dropkin of the United States, Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller and Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell.
"You could probably host this event five, six, seven weeks in a row and you might be able to get five, six or seven different winners," Jacobs said. "So we're hoping that it's our week."
The 13-team field also includes South Korea's Jaebeom Lee, Japan's Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Austria’s Mathias Genner, China’s Xiaonubg Xu and Czechia's Lukas Klima.
Canada will open round-robin play Saturday afternoon against Japan before taking on Germany in the evening.
"We do expect to get everyone's best game and that's what we want," Jacobs said. "We just have to outplay them and that's what we intend to do."
The event will also determine most of the countries that will compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy. Combined results from the 2024 and '25 world championships will determine seven entries that will join host Italy.
A last-chance qualifier to determine the final two Olympic berths will be held in December in Kelowna, B.C.
Canada will determine its Olympic representatives in four-player team events at the Montana's Canadian Curling Trials this November in Halifax.
Edin beat Gushue in last year's world final in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Mouat topped Gushue for the 2023 title in Ottawa.
The top six teams at the end of round-robin play April 4 will qualify for the playoffs. Medal games are set for April 6.
Ottawa's Rachel Homan won gold at the women's world playdowns earlier this month in Uijeongbu, South Korea.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2025.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
