Rachel Homan took over the Canadian women’s curling championship with a 5-4 victory over Jennifer Jones on Sunday.
Homan and longtime teammate Emma Miskew won their fourth title, surpassing Sarah Wilkes for their second. It was the first for Tracy Fleury, the third for Homan.
“Unbelievable,” Homan said. “Tracy Fleury is an incredible competitor and so happy that we can win with her.
“It’s phenomenal to be able to do this with my children here. He misses one at home because he’s not sleeping, but I know he’s cheering loudly.”
March represented Canada at the World Cup in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and will return at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts 2025 in Thunder Bay, Ontario., as the defending champion.
Homan’s team also won 100,000 money for his victory, as well as a place at the 2025 Canadian curling Trials, while he was waiting for a top-6 place in Sydney.
Homan has won three tournaments of Hearts between 2013 and 2017 and lost in the last three years in a row between 2019 and 2021.
His Ottawa curling club quartet remained unbeaten with a score of 11-0 in Calgary, thanks to the strength of the defensive, which averaged less than four points per game, and in a field that included the top eight teams in Canada.
Homan did not give up a steal in the tournament until a playoff win against Jones ended in overtime on Saturday.
Jones, a six-time champion, said she will withdraw from the women’s curling team at the end of this season, although the 49-year-old from Winnipeg will participate in mixed doubles with her husband.
The decorated veteran lost in the final of hearts for the second time in a row. Homan brought hammer home with a score of 4: 4, but she did not have to throw her last stone.
Jones, who had to pull his last stone by the button, rubbed an Ontario stone into the four-foot-long rings and rolled right out, giving Homan his point for the win.
“My last one did it. They (don’t want) to fail,” Jones said. “I think we played a really good game today. We showed up to play and it could have gone either way, and unfortunately it didn’t go the way we did today.”
Jones stood in the middle of the rings at home to acknowledge the standing ovation she received at the sold-out WinSport Event Center.
“I love being part of this curling community,” Jones said. “Standing ovations were more than I ever expected, the fact that all these people came to support our sport, and they somehow support me, means the whole world.
“It’s really hard to say goodbye at the moment, to be honest.”
Homan led 3-1 at the break from the fifth end with a steal from one to the fifth. Homan outscored Jones by 98 percent to 68 in the first five rounds.
Having bleached the sixth end, Jones performed a tricky pat on the seventh end to draw 3-2. Homan tapped and rolled on the button for an eighth for a 4-2 lead.
Jones grouped the rocks in ninth place to prepare an ending with several points. Homan managed to clear some, but left his counterpart a shot for two to tie the game.
After the first Joanne Courtney retired in 2022, Homan brought Fleury on board to jump and throw third stones while throwing fourth stones.
The long-time third Emma Miskew advanced to second place and Wilkes took the lead. They did not reach the last square in the hearts of last year in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Homan took over the broom this season, when all four women settled in their new positions. They have lost only five games in almost 60 games this season.
“They’re getting to work and hoping it’s enough,” Homan said. “Today was enough.”
Homan won a World Championship in Beijing in 2017, a silver medal in Saint John, New Brunswick in 2014, and a bronze medal in Riga, Latvia in 2013.