From February 4 to 10, Canada’s top 21 U-18 boys and girls teams competed in Ottawa at the U-18 Canadian Championship. Following our U-18 provincial championship held at the beginning of January at the Montreal West curling club, 3 teams qualified to compete in the Canadian championship:
QC1
Grand Mère TALL (Raphaël Tremblay, Mathis Arsenault, Thomas Lauzon, Justin Lapointe, Zachary Janidlo, Jean-François Tremblay (coach))
QC1
Kénogami Soudex (Jolianne Fortin, Emy Lafrance, Mégane Fortin, Megan Lafrance, Brandon Lafrance (coach))
QC2
Riverbend/Opémiska (Sarah Bergeron, Léanne Fortin, Juliette Bergeron, Emmy Bélanger, Gabryelle Sasseville, Daniel Bélanger (coach))
For the preliminary round, each category (boys/girls) was divided into 3 groups of 7 teams, so there were 6 games to be played. Following the round robin, both the QC1 girls and boys teams advanced to the round of 16 with a record of 4 wins and 2 losses. The QC2 girls’ team also qualified with a record of 3 wins and 3 losses. In the round of 16, both QC1 teams won their games, but QC2 unfortunately lost to Manitoba1 (8-1).
In the quarterfinals, the boys defeated New Brunswick 7-6 to advance to the semifinals. They then lost in the semifinals to Newfoundland and Labrador (the team that became Canadian champions) 9-4. Unfortunately, they didn’t win the bronze medal game following a 9-2 loss to Nova Scotia, but the team should be extremely proud of their performance!
The girls won 6-5 in the quarter-finals against Team Ontario1 (Vivier), who had yet to lose a game in the competition. Advancing to the semifinals, they defeated Ontario2 (Acres) 8-1 to advance to the final of the Canadian Championship. In the final, they faced Manitoba1 but unfortunately lost 8-5. They headed home with a beautiful silver medal! Congratulations to Emy, Mégane, Jolianne, Megan et Brandon ! 
