(Reuters) – The Continental Cup scheduled for next month in Fredericton, New Brunswick has been cancelled due to the Omicron coronavirus variant and isolation requirements for European teams headed to the Beijing Olympics, Curling Canada said on Wednesday.
The event, billed as the curling version of golf’s Ryder Cup, would have seen Team Canada face Team Europe in a series of traditional four-player, mixed doubles, skins games and more from Jan. 20-23.
Curling Canada said tougher travel restrictions for visitors to Canada made it impossible to hold the event especially given the Europeans would be hard-pressed to satisfy the isolation requirements ahead of the Feb. 4-20 Beijing Olympics.
“The travel restrictions, as well as the proximity in date to the Winter Olympics, were going to prevent most, if not all, of the European teams to attend, and that would affect the integrity of the competition,” Curling Canada Chief Executive Officer Katherine Henderson said in a news release.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
