Jacobs, Homan clinch men’s and women’s final berths at Canadian curling trials

Calgary's Brad Jacobs secured a spot in the men's final at the Canadian curling competition in Halifax hours before fellow curler Rachel Homan of Ottawa won the women's team on Wednesday.

Jacobs (5-1) took sole possession of first place in the men's tournament with one draw after a 6-2 win over Winnipeg's Matt Dunston in morning play. Jacobs finished the game with two interceptions in the 10th end.

It was later determined that there was no scenario in which Jacobs would not have finished first after the final round-robin draw on Wednesday night.

Dunston finished second at 4-2 with Mike McEwen of Saskatoon and Brad Gushue of St. John's. McEwen defeated Gushue 9-7 on Wednesday morning.

Jacobs, a 2014 Olympic champion, was scheduled to face Gushue, the 2006 gold medalist and reigning bronze medalist, on Wednesday night, while Dunston will take on McEwen.

The second and third place teams will meet in a knockout semi-final.

In other early results, Toronto's John Epping defeated Calgary's Kevin Coe 8-4 and Winnipeg's Jordan MacDonald edged Saskatoon's Ryan Clater 7-6.

In the final draw Coe led 3-3, Epping 2-4 and McDonald and Kleiter 1-5.

On Wednesday, Homan beat Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., 7-6 to take first place in the women's round robin.

“That was our goal at the beginning of the week,” Homan said. “The field is so tough that today we needed everything to get through to the final and I’m very proud of the girls who rose to the challenge.

“[It's] huge. There's no other way to say it. It's a big game for us to reach the final and have a little rest. [Thursday]I’ll go out on the ice a little, and then I’ll wait for the weekend again.”

Einarson fights to the end

Both sites finished the preliminary round with scores of 6-1. Homan earned direct passage to the women's best-of-three final with her head-to-head victory.

Homan scored twice in the eighth for a 7–4 lead before Einarson countered with singles in each of the final two ends.

Einarson will face hometown favorite Christina Black in the semifinals on Thursday. The final starts on Friday.

Black scored three times in the 10th end for a 10-6 win over Kate Cameron of St. Adolphus, Man., and finished third 4-2 with Winnipeg's Kaitlyn Laws and Edmonton's Selena Sturmay. She advanced to the semi-finals with the best cumulative final stone rating among the three teams.

The Last Rock Draw is a pre-game competition in which two players from each team deliver the rock to the center of the house. The team closest to the center gets the hammer in the match.

Black suggested she had a new “curling god” on her side, referring to Colleen Jones. legendary curler and longtime television personality from Halifax died on Tuesday at the age of 65 after being diagnosed with cancer in 2023.

“We came in today and knew we had to do everything in our power to win the game and hope everything works out,” Black said. “But we also knew there was a new curling god out there, and you always say you pray to the curling gods.

“Well, we have the best man on our side now. She's doing the best she can and we'll just go and leave it there like she would. She’s a fighter, she doesn’t give up—her whole career, her whole life, so we’re like, we can do this.”

Lowes recorded four hits in the 10th with a 9-6 decision win over Calgary's Kayla Skrlik, while Stermey defeated Corrin Brown of Kamloops, B.C., 9-4 in nine matches.

The winners of the tournament will represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy.