Scotland will have new representatives in both the women’s and men’s forthcoming World Championships after national champions Team Henderson and Team Whyte were selected for the first time.
For these teams the opportunity to wear Scotland colours at senior level is a reward for the consistency in recent years that has seen Fay Henderson and Ross Whyte lead their rinks to three successive Scottish Championship wins.
The selections were made taking a series of criteria into account in relation to performances over the past season and come at the start of a new cycle, with the decision having previously been taken that the players who competed so impressively for Team GB at last month's Winter Olympics would not be considered for this season's men's and women's World Championships, in recognition of their work-load.
“This is a key time in our planning for the next Winter Olympics and once the decision was made that the players who represented Team GB in Milan Cortina would not be competing at this year’s women’s and men’s World Championships, we knew that this would give us the opportunity to test our strength and depth in the best possible way,” said British Curling’s Performance Director Dave Leith.
He noted that both the teams heading to World Championships have established credentials and vast experience with Whyte having won an Olympic silver medal as the alternate at the 2022 Games in Beijing before leading his own team on their march up the rankings that has taken them as high as number three and currently number four in the world, while former World Junior Championship winning skip Henderson's line-up includes 2022 Olympic gold medallist Hailey Duff.
“In any other era Team Whyte might have represented both Scotland and Great Britain on numerous occasions by now, such has been their sustained excellence at the highest level for several seasons," said Leith.
"This selection has now given them the chance to demonstrate what they and we believe, that they are capable of matching the type of performance at major championships that we have become accustomed to seeing from our world champions and number one ranked men, Team Mouat, who have just contested their second Olympic final.
“In the women’s game it is a similar situation after Team Morrison demonstrated themselves to be worthy successors to our 2022 Olympic Champions Team Muirhead, with their fine run in Milan Cortina which saw them miss out on reaching the play-offs by the narrowest of margins.
“Fay Henderson gained valuable experience from being alternate to this year’s Olympic team and she demonstrated that when she returned home to match Ross Whyte in leading her own team to a third successive title.
"As a former Junior Women's World Championship winning skip, who has an Olympic gold medal winner in Hailey Duff in her team, this exposure to the highest level of the sport is ideal for them at this stage of their careers and we look forward to seeing how they perform." 
Henderson, Duff and their teammates Lisa Davie, Katie McMillan and Laura Watt are first in action at the BKT Women's World Curling Championships which take place from March 14-22 in Calgary, Canada.
“As a team we are absolutely delighted to be selected to represent Scotland at the upcoming World Championships in Calgary," said their skip.
"This has been a big goal that we’ve been so close to over the last few years, so we are really excited to see what we can achieve."
Whyte, Robin Brydone, Craig Waddell, Euan Kyle and Duncan McFadzean meanwhile contest the LGT World Men's Curling Championships in Ogden, USA from March 27 - April 4.
“We have waited for this chance for a number of years and that only makes us all the more proud to get to defend the title for Scotland," said Whyte.
“We have demonstrated with our Grand Slam wins in Canada in each of the last two seasons that we can beat the world’s best and we will head over there full of confidence in our capacity to deliver for Scotland.”
Please click here for more information about the BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, Calgary, AB (14-22 March).
Please click here for more information about the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship, Ogden, UT, USA (27 March-4 April).
Images: Team Whyte – TCG – Anil Mungal
