Manitoto siblings Jessica and Ben Smith earned the right to represent New Zealand at the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship when they won the three-team national trial at Naseby last weekend.
It has been a long wait for the pair. This is the third time they have won that right, but for personal reasons they did not go in 2019, and this year's world tournament was a casualty of the pandemic.
The 2020 cancellation increased the importance of the 2021 World Championship as an Olympic qualifier, triggering a one-off change from the New Zealand Curling Association.
It introduced a trial rather than the automatic selection of the New Zealand Championship winners as the national team.
The Smiths beat Bridget Becker and Sean Becker 9-3 in the final to seal the spot.
"For us, the focus wasn't just about earning the spot for the Worlds," said Jess Smith.
"But also proving to ourselves and everyone else that we deserved the second chance we got from New Zealand Curling to take part in this trial after our result from the New Zealand Mixed Doubles Nationals. "Our mentality for the weekend was to just take one game at a time. We know from experience that anything can happen in a game of curling and it's never over until the last stone.
"It was great to be able to play under the pressure of time clocks and have the ice in great condition to play on."
The 2021 World Championship is scheduled for the last week of April, but the venue is not yet confirmed. Seven of the nine nations to join the Chinese hosts at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will also qualify at this tournament.
Referring to the uncertainty, Jess said "it has been hard not knowing what will happen next year".
"But we just have to continue on as though everything is normal so that we come out ready, whether that's next year or even the year after."
