The Curling team of Fornax is invincible (5-0)

The curling team of Fornax had been formed last fall, and it came in first at its first competition ever after winning every single match, this year’s Monday Corporate Curling Cup. Any company interested to give this sport a try was allowed to enter the nationwide amateur round-robin tournament. The Fornax team was self-organized. In the beginning they only visited the rink for the fun of it, later this group of players turned into our champion team.

They have used every opportunity to practice – this current challenge proved to be an excellent opportunity as well. The team is made up of several seasoned players and a few novices as well – but thanks to their practising and enthusiasm together they led the team to victory anyway.

Although this exercise has been practiced for a relatively long time in Hungary, not many people know that the game was played with rules similar to the ones today almost 450 years ago in the Low Countries – as it can be seen in a painting from that period. And since the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics it has been continuously a part of the Olympic Games, and today women can also compete.

Curling is played by two teams, both sliding eight stones each on the rink to a circular field. The team with the stones closest to the centre of the circle is the winner. To an outsider it may seem like a leisurely activity, but it requires a fit physique, arm muscles, back muscles and mainly thigh muscles are under a lot of strain.

In addition to clever tactics therefore physical strength is vital as well, but a sense of balance, precision and the ability to focus are all of great importance.

And the greatest challenge is that the competitors have to put a lot of effort into „sweeping”. In other words they have to smooth the ice so that the stone is not slowed by the unevenness of the ice surface – this is the way to control the stone’s speed and direction.

„The tactics of the Fornax team was to play it safe, we had a level-headed and consistent attitude, resulting in our best performance. We all knew what we were capable of, and we always assessed the strategy of our opponent to make the most of our talent, enjoying every minute of it”, said Viktor Kasuba, team captain.

The trophy of the Monday Corporate Curling Cup was handed over to Fornax at a ceremony on the 30^th of May near the curling rink of the Kamara forest.

The members of the winner team also received a pass to the rink, giving them the opportunity from autumn to prepare for next year’s championship.

The members of the winner team are:

Zsuzsa Záhonyi

Ricsi Nagy

Dani Czipper

Marci Molnár

Viktor Kasuba

Gábor Deák