By Avenash Ramzan
Guyana enjoyed a historic day at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Oestersund, Sweden, chalking up victories over Austria and Ireland in Group E action.
Guyana is being represented by siblings Rayad Hussain and Farzana Hussain, who are based in Canada. The pair first got pass Austria 9-6 to record Guyana’s first win ever at the Championship, and followed up with an even more impressive 11-4 win over Ireland.
Guyana is participating in the event for the very first time, as the Guyana Curling Federation was only formed in June 2016. Rayad and Farzana are the only two competitive athletes attached to the Federation at the moment.
Prior to the wins on Tuesday, Guyana suffered three straight defeats at the hands of world number one in Mixed Doubles Canada, Germany and the Korean team that participated in the recent Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Speaking to News Room immediately after coming off the ice against Austria, Rayad said, “First win for us as a country! So after three losses and really bad games, it’s nice to get that monkey off our back and win. It gives us legitimacy that we’ve won at a World Championship. Many people were kind of skeptical of us from last year. Winning is good at a World Championship and against an established country like Austria I think that’s great!”
He added, “(We’re) starting to feel more confident here so hopefully we can keep it going for the last two games.”
Guyana’s next game is against Brazil on Wednesday.
Editor’s note: Find out more about Curling and the launch of the Guyana Curling Federation in this report.