Thiessen leads Team Manitoba to national gold
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/05/2014 (4398 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Sanford’s Dennis Thiessen has another gold medal to add to his collection after leading Team Manitoba to victory in the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championships.
The Manitoba team beat last year’s gold medal winners from Quebec with a score of 8-5 on May 4 in Boucherville, Que. Ten teams competed at Club de curling de Boucherville in a round robin series from April 28 to May 2, with the playoffs held on May 3 and 4.
“It went well,” Thiessen said. “We started off slow, but the team really picked it up.”
He was vice-skip on Canada’s wheelchair curling team, which brought home gold in the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games in March. The same team also captured gold at the 2013 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in February last year.
“It’s been quite a year,” Thiessen said. Team Manitoba included second Melissa Lecuyer, from Seven Oaks in Winnipeg, third Mark Wherrett, from Fort Garry, and lead Jamie Anseeuw, of Oak Bluff, and was coached by Tom Wherrett.
Thiessen and Lecuyer previously represented Manitoba on the provincial team that won gold in the Canadian Championships in 2011, and Mark Wherrett had previously curled for northern Ontario in the national event. This was Anseeuw’s first time on the ice at a national bonspiel — in fact, the 55-year-old just started wheelchair curling last October.
“For me, it’s very new,” he said.
He had heard Thiessen was looking for a new team member and his family urged him to try out.
“I had absolutely no idea of what I was getting into,” Anseeuw said.
Thiessen must have seen potential in the former snowmobile racer, because he invited Anseeuw to join his team, which curls out of Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club in Winnipeg.
“Dennis would spend a lot of time with me,” Anseeuw said. The team curled every Saturday in an able-bodied mixed league and practised at least twice a week.
Anseeuw said the work Thiessen did to prepare for the Sochi Paralympics was also useful for the Team Manitoba members as Thiessen shared tips on training and strategy.
With one big win notched up, Anseeuw said he plans to continue curling.
Twitter: @CanstarHeadline