After supporting her team’s biggest domestic rivals at the Winter Olympics, Fay Henderson is set to take to the ice as Scotland skip at the BKT World Women’s Championships in Calgary (14-22 March).
The former junior World Championship winning skip had the best seat in the house as Team GB produced what was statistically the best performance of any team in the round-robin stages in Milan-Cortina and that has only fuelled her belief in her ability, along with 2022 Olympic gold medallist Hailey Duff, Katie McMillan, Lisa Davie and Laura Watt, to compete with the best in the game.
The victory Team Henderson claimed in the recent Hardie Engineering Scottish Curling Championships was their third title win a row and while the Olympians were absent from this year’s event, they had been the beaten finalists in the previous two years, demonstrating the growing strength in depth in the Scottish women’s game.
“We have fought very hard for this over the last couple of seasons and to now have the opportunity to make it count feels great,” said Henderson. 
“Obviously we haven’t had a huge amount of time to process this and prepare since the Scottish Championships and the selection taking place before flying out here, but all season we have had our sights set on this so we have been working towards it and always had it in the back of our minds and we were doing everything we could to build to each competition, the Scottish and the end goal which is where we are now.
“I have had a very busy few weeks, so it has obviously been just moving on to the next thing and then the next.
“Now it is all about taking the time to enjoy the moment and process what is about to come up as it is going to be a very busy week, so I know I need to pause throughout the week and take the time to reflect on how great an opportunity this is and how hard we have worked to get here as a team and as individuals.
“This is something you all dream about, getting to represent Scotland at a worlds so it is nice to have our Scotland kit back on and we are ready to go.”
It will be a first appearance at a World Championships for all five players, but Henderson believes that both she and Duff can use what they have learned from their Winter Olympic involvements to advantage.
“To be making our playing debut as a team feels absolutely amazing,” she said.
“We have experience from myself being alternate for Team Morrison and Hailey and her Olympic experience, so I think that just helps us with the environment and what to do, where to be and what is going on and overall that helps with the pressure of playing as well, just knowing a bit more about that kind of atmosphere and just feeling more comfortable in it.
“From the Olympics it was getting used to that as a standard to have that level of atmosphere and a crowd and at the Scottish Championships there were plenty people cheering us on, too, so we can expect that here as well on a larger scale and it is nice to have that to get our motivation high.”
She is also aware of the added challenge of longer, 10 end matches in championship conditions, but believes they can draw inspiration from the way that domestic rivals Team Morrison performed at the Olympics, in the knowledge that they have previously been able to go the distance with them.
“Definitely having experience of longer competitions and championship experience over the last few years has definitely helped,” said Henderson.
“We know it is a very tiring schedule at a World Championships so we are definitely prepared for that and we are ready to fight for every game.
“I think being able to beat Team Morrison in the last two out of three victories at the national championships is great too, because we saw how well they played at the Olympics and rose to the occasion of those Games, so we really hope that we can do the same and put out a really great performance this week.”
The Scots start their round-robin campaign against China on the opening day of competition, with 13 nations taking part (Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkiye and the USA).
Please click here for more information about the BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, Calgary, AB (14-22 March)
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