World Men’s Curling Championship 2014: Contenders, challengers and long shots

For the first time in the history of the game, the World Men's Curling Championship will be contested in Asia, as twelve nations' entries gather in Beijing, China, beginning this weekend.

Like the women's championship, the men's field is a little weaker this time around as a number of countries send teams other than their best, due to conflicts with Olympics participation. Because of that, the reigning world champions - Team Sweden, skipped by Niklas Edin - are not here.

Still, some countries do have their Sochi teams participating at this event, including China, Norway, Russia, Germany and Denmark.

Here's how the field breaks down, in three categories; contenders, challengers and long shots (Season records according to statistics found at CurlingZone.ca):

CONTENDERS

The 'contenders' group features the teams that are more than likely to be in the playoffs when the round robin schedule has been completed. In this category, you'll find three teams; Canada, China and Norway.

It has been an interesting season - to say the least - for the Canadian champions, skipped by Kevin Koe. Rumours of the team splitting up have been rampant pretty much since the Olympic trials ended and their win at The Brier only briefly calmed that talk. Stories of this team's dismantling have surfaced again, however, with Kevin Martin confirming that his front end duo of Ben Hebert and Marc Kennedy are leaving him to join forces with Koe. Will all this be a distraction? In the opinion of curling analyst Mike Harris, no. In an email response to that question, Harris wrote:

It's an impressive crew, led by a skip who is peerless when it comes to shots that need a combination of big weight and accuracy. Record this season: 45 and 19.

Saying Koe is peerless in that regard might be a bit of a disservice to Norway's Thomas Ulsrud, actually. Like Koe, Ulsrud is a runback specialist who can make the spectacular shots when needed. This team disappointed at The Olympics, where a tie-breaker loss to Great Britain left them out of the playoffs. They may, then, have a little extra motivation here and bring much, much more to the game than the attention they get for their - ahem - stylish outfits. They won The Swiss Cup, last October, emerging from a deep field to get the win and finished second at the European Championship, in November. Record this season: 45 and 24.

This event could be the capper on the host country's coming out party for its men's curlers. China's Rui Liu leads a team that was superb at the Olympics, falling just short of a medal when they lost to Sweden in the bronze medal game. Led by the skip's excellent shooting and guided magnificently by the coaching of Canada's Marcel Rocque, this is a team that has been climbing the mountain ever since it was announced that Beijing would host the World Championship and they might very well reach the summit at this event. Record this season: 59 and 27.

CHALLENGERS

Four countries comprise the list of 'challengers' for this event. One of them should be the fourth playoff team and should one of the big three falter, you could see more than one of them in the playoffs. They are: Denmark, Sweden, Scotland and Switzerland.

Denmark, skipped by 25 year old Rasmus Stjerne, is the most likely to emerge from this group. After winning a world junior title in 2009, Stjerne jumped into the men's division and after finishing outside the playoffs at the worlds in 2012, came within a whisker of a bronze medal at last year's event. A slight line-up change sees alternate Lars Vilandt in at second, replacing Mikkel Poulsen, who played at The Olympics, where Denmark finished with a record of 4 and 5. In this field they ought to be able to improve on that. Record this season: 34 and 24.

Sweden, may not have Edin at this event, but they do have his Olympics and World Championship alternate, Oskar Eriksson. In 2012, Eriksson was pressed into action at The Worlds at second, when back troubles forced Edin out of the line-up. Erikkson is just 22 years old, with teammates who are aged 24, 24 and 26, so it may be a little early to see them as a force. However, they did impress at The National a couple of weeks ago, beating the likes of Brad Jacobs and Brad Gushue in round robin play before falling to Gushue in the playoffs. Record this season: 46 and 24.

Scotland's most powerful team, skipped by David Murdoch, misses out on a Worlds appearance this year as the perennial power instead sends Ewan MacDonald's rink to Beijing. MacDonald is very much a decorated curler, having won world championships with both Hammy McMillan and Murdoch (twice, with MacDonald playing vice) as well as representing Great Britain at three Olympic Games. MacDonald's team went undefeated at the Scottish Championship, but is only lightly-tested when it comes to major events this year. Record this season: 14 and 3.

Switzerland will be represented by a crew skipped by Peter de Cruz. While most of the talk about Swiss men's curling has centred around Sven Michel this year, it is de Cruz who represents his country, beating Michel at the national championship earlier this month. A world junior championship team in 2010, this rink also finished second to Michel at The German Masters, in January, and lost a close semi-final game to Ulsrud at last fall's Swiss Cup. Record this season: 27 and 26.

LONG SHOTS

In this category are the teams that should have a hard time keeping up with the contenders (season records in parentheses). They are: Czech Republic (12 and 19), Germany (35 and 24), Japan (37 and 24), Russia (22 and 30) and The United States (27 and 25).

OVERVIEW

It's difficult to be completely confident about Koe's team. With such an up and down season and the spectre of change hanging over them, can we really know how they'll handle all of that? They have the curling pedigree to be big time favourites here, but so did Rachel Homan's team at the women's. It would be very easy for a dissolving team to implode if things don't start off on the right foot.

For all his great accomplishments, Ulsrud has yet to win a world title, collecting bronze on three occasions as well as one Olympic silver. You'd think his team could have put it all together by now and that mounting pressure may give them a kick in those stylish pants of theirs, sharpening their game with a little extra motivation.

As mentioned, Rocque did a superb job in getting China ready for the Olympics and Liu's showing there must have them convinced that they can win it all here. There will be big pressure on them at this event and how they handle that will be exceptionally important.

PREDICTION

Any of the big three are capable of taking gold. But if they're not careful, Stjerne could emerge to play in the final. As it is, I'll take Canada versus China in the gold medal game and that could go either way.

The schedule for the 2014 world men's curling championship can be found here.