St Gallen awarded 2017 European Curling Championships

St Gallen in Switzerland will host the 2017 European Curling Championships ©WCF

Switzerland will stage the European Curling Championships for the 11th time after St Gallen was chosen to host the 2017 edition of the event by the World Curling Federation (WCF).

The competition will run from November 17 to 25, with A Division matches taking place at the Eissportzentrum Lerchenfeld, while B Division action is scheduled for The Curling Center St Gallen, which was opened in 2014.

It will be the first time the Swiss city has ever played host to the tournament though it has staged the finals of Curling Champions Tour for the past three years.

“Switzerland has hosted this event 11 times in 35 years showing the long tradition that the Swiss have with our sport and their ability to host a first class curling championship,” WCF President Kate Caithness said.

“It is also pleasing to be able to take this Championship to a new region in Switzerland and showcase our sport in the north east of the country.”

The Organising Committee for the 2017 competition have revealed the slogan for the event will be “We rock the ice” and chairman Marco Battilana expressed his delight at St Gallen being awarded the Championships.

Switzerland's women are the current European and world champions ©WCF

"We and the whole curling community are very happy, to bring the European Curling Championships 2017 to St.Gallen,” he said.

“With our slogan - “We rock the ice” - we want to stage the event with a unique ambience, with a home country feeling, entertainment, food and beverages and individual services for the public and athletes.”

The announcement comes ahead of the start of the 2015 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships in Esbjerg, Denmark, which get underway later today.

Switzerland are the defending women’s champions having triumphed on home ice in Champéry before they went on to reign supreme at the World Women’s Curling Championships in Sapporo, Japan earlier this year.

Niklas Edin’s Swedish men’s team come into the event in Denmark as favourites and will be looking to clinch a second consecutive European Curling Championships crown after they beat arch-rivals Norway 5-4 in a tense 2014 final.