Alberta's Randy Ferbey from the Avonair Curling Club in Edmonton made curling history when he equaled Colleen Jones' record of five Canadian Curling championships in winning the 2003 Nokia Brier in Halifax. He is the first Canadian men's skip to do that along with his teammates third David Nedohin, second Scott Pfeifer and lead Marcel Rocque. They are also the first Canadian men's team to win three straight national crowns. The team alternate is Dan Holowaychuk and the team coach is Brian Moore.

Based on their performance in qualifying for the Ford Worlds, Ferbey will be the "team to beat". Should it happen, the Winnipeg Arena is definitely the place to be when the action begins on Saturday, April 5.

Four national titles in five years would definitely qualify as a dynasty in professional sports and Colleen Jones and her Nova Scotia rink from Halifax, with third Kim Kelly, second Mary-Anne Waye and lead Nancy Delahunt, has to be considered a favourite at the 2003 Ford World Curling Championships. The team's alternate is Laine Peters and Ken Bagnell is team coach.

The Jones' foursome became the first women's team to win four Canadian crowns together, after winning their first national championship in 1999. Jones had already won more Canadian titles than any other skip with four, before winning her fifth Scott Tournament of Hearts national championship in Kitchener-Waterloo on February 23, 2003. Her career record also includes 15 provincial championships.

The Danish men's national championship was decided in a best of three final and eventual champion Ulrik Schmidt needed all three games in order to win the right to represent Denmark at the 2003 Ford Worlds in Winnipeg.

Schmidt and his team consisting of third Lasse Lavrsen, second Carsten Svensgaard, lead Joel Ostrowski, alternate Christian Hansen and co-coaches Bill Carey and Tracy Choptain emerged as champions.

Schmidt has skipped Denmark to 3 silver medals in the European championships in 1997, 1999 and 2000. He played in the 1997 Ford Worlds and finished 5th. At the 1999 Ford Worlds, he placed 6th and in the 2000 Ford Worlds finished 5th again.

Dorthe Holm will skip the Danish women's team, with third Malene Krause, second Denise Dupont and lead Lisa Richardson. The team coach is Frants Gufler.

Holm won the Danish women's championship by winning two straight games in a best of three national final. Her team defeated the Denise Dupont team 8-2 and 7-4. Since some Holm team members were unable to compete at the 2003 Ford Worlds, the team is composed of members from both the Holm and Dupont teams. Holm was a silver medallist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where she played second and won a silver medal. She has played in four Worlds for Denmark, and skipped the team at the 1996 Hamilton Worlds.

Markku Uusipaavalniemi, a former world-curling fan favourite in part because of his unpronounceable name, has represented Finland in seven World championships, including the last six. He twice lost semi-final games, once in 1998 and was bronze medallist at the 1998 Kamloops Ford Worlds for Finland's first ever medal in World competition. He won bronze again in 2000 at the Glasgow Ford Worlds.

At the 2001 Ford Worlds in Lausanne, Switzerland and at the 2002 Ford Worlds in Bismarck, ND, Uusipaavalniemi compiled a 5-4 record. At the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Markku again skipped Finland to a 5-4 record.

Joining Uusipaavalniemi at the 2003 Ford Worlds will be third Kalle Kiiskinen, second Aku Kauste, lead Teemu Salo and alternate Tony Traskelin.

Germany will be sending a rookie team to the 2003 Ford Worlds in Winnipeg. Skip Andreas Lang is joined by third Rainer Beiter, second Jurgen Beck, lead Sebastian Schweizer and alternate Jorg Engesser. Team coach Dick Henderson is originally from Winnipeg.

Curling out of the Schwenningen club, the Lang foursome won the German national men's championships by defeating the more experienced and well-known Kapp brothers 7-3.

Prior to winning the right to represent Germany at the Ford Worlds, Lang skipped the German junior team to 6th place at the 1999 World Juniors in Ostersund.

The Italian women's team from the New Wave Curling Club in Cortina d'Ampezzo will be skipped by Diana Gaspari with third Giulia Lacedelli, second Rosa Pompanin, lead Violetta Caldart and alternate Arianna Lorenzi. The team coaches are Roberto Lacedelli and Rodger Schmidt.

Gaspari skipped Italy at the 2002 World Junior's in Kelowna, BC and finished fourth after losing to Canada's Suzanne Gaudet in the bronze medal game. The Italians will come to Winnipeg from competing at the 2003 World Juniors in Flims, Switzerland in late March. Gaspari also skipped Italy to the 2002 European "B" championships in Grindelwald, Germany, and posted an 11-1 record in winning the gold medal.

Last November, skip Shinobu Aota, third Yukari Okazaki, second Eriko Minatoya and lead Kotomi Ishizaki with team alternate Satomi Tsujii and coach Shun-Ichi Fujita won the 2002 Pacific Region Curling Championship in Queenstown, New Zealand, and the right to represent Japan at the 2003 Ford Worlds in Winnipeg.

The Japanese rink chalked up an impressive 7-1 record in round robin play and then defeated Korea, last year's Pacific region curling representatives, with an easy 8-3 victory to win the gold medal.

The gold medal victory improved Japan's overall record at the Pacific regional championship to 9-1 and earned them a berth in the 2003 Ford Worlds.

Skip Dong Keun Lee with third Soo Hyuk Kim, second Jae Cheol Park and lead Min Suk Choi, along with team alternate Seung Wan Ko and team coach Elaine Dagg-Jackson, play out of the Kyeongbuk Curling Club in Daegu, South Korea. They won the 2002 Pacific Region Curling Championships in Queenstown, New Zealand in November.

All the members of the Korean team are university students and will make their world championships debut at the 2003 Ford Worlds. Skip Dong Keun Lee was the bronze medallist at the 2003 World University Games in Tarvisio, Italy where he posted an 8-3 record. He was also the 2003 Winter Asian games gold medallist.

The Norwegian men's team has Pal Trulsen at skip, with third Lars Vagberg, Flemming Davanger second and lead Bend Anund Ramsfjell. Niels Siggaard Anderson is the team alternate and the coach is Ole Ingvaldsen.

This is the same Norwegian team that competed at the 2002 Ford Worlds in Bismarck, ND and lost the gold medal final to Canada's Randy Ferbey in a decisive 10-5 decision. Trulsen took the bronze medal away from Ferbey at the 2001 Ford Worlds and also won the Olympic gold medal by defeating Canada's Kevin Martin at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Prior to those major competitions, Trulsen played in the World Junior championships in 1981, 1982 and 1983. He won the silver medal in 1983.

Veteran world competitor Dordi Nordby returns to the 2003 Ford Worlds with third Hanne Woods, second Marianne Haslum and lead Camilla Holth. Nordby will make a record-tying 15th appearance at these World championships, equaling Denmark's Helena Blach Lavrsen's record.

The Nordby rink is always a fan favourite and has to be considered one of the teams that can provide some solid competition to Canada's Colleen Jones. One of the most experienced and successful curlers ever, Nordby are a two-time World champion, having won the title in Vasteras in 1990 and again at the 1991 Winnipeg Worlds. Nordby has won more games at the Worlds than any other women's skip with 84 victories.

Representing the Moskvitch Curling Club in Moscow, the Russian team is skipped by Olga Jarkova, with third Nkeiruka Ezekh, second Yana Nekrasova, lead Anastasia Skultan, with alternate Liudmila Privivkova and team coach Olga Andrianova.

Jarkova has played in two Ford Worlds for Russia. She skipped the Russian team at the 2002 Ford Worlds in Bismarck, ND and posted a 4 and 5 record. At the 2001 Worlds in Lausanne she was third for Nina Golovtchenko. She also skipped the Russian team at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, posting a 1-8 record.

Jarkova and her current team won the gold medal at the 2003 World University Games in Tarvisio, Italy, posting a 7-2 record.

Peter Smith will represent Scotland at the 2003 Ford World Championships. He has played in seven Worlds for Scotland. Joining Smith is David Hay (third), Graham Cormack (second), and Ewan Macdonald (lead), a former Scottish and European champion. Team alternate is Warwick Smith, who skipped Scotland to a Bronze medal at the 2002 Worlds in Bismarck, ND. The team coach is Derek Brown.

Smith curled second for Scotland's David Smith at the 1991 Winnipeg Worlds and won the gold medal. He was the second for David Smith in 1988 when Scotland won the bronze medal and won silver at the 1993 championships in Geneva.

Edith Loudon's team from Perth won the Scottish Championships by going undefeated in 14 games against seven teams. She earned the right to represent Scotland at the Worlds early in February by staging an unprecedented 14-0 run through the Scottish women's playdowns that saw her beat Rhona Martin and reigning world champion Jackie Lockhart twice each.

The Loudon rink includes Karen Addison, sister of former champion Kirsty Hay, Lynn Cameron and Katie Loudon. Jackie Lockhart is the team alternate and skipped Scotland to a gold medal at the 2002 Ford Worlds.

Loudon is a four-time participant at the Ford Worlds and was the second on the British team that finished fourth at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

Skip Per Carlsen and third Mikael Norberg return to the World Championship after finishing 8th at the 2002 Ford World Championship in Bismarck, ND, and 9th at the 1999 championships. Carlsen and Norberg will be joined by two new front-end members in brothers Rickard Hallstrom (second) and Fredrik Hallstrom (lead). Niklas Berggren is the team alternate. Coach Olle Hakansson has been Sweden's coach since 1990.

Carlsen has won the Swedish Super League championship the past 3 years. He also won the Swedish Championship in 1994 and 1999, and won the 1992 European Championship staged in Perth, Scotland. Third Mikael Norberg also has a wealth of international experience and has curled third for Carlsen since 1999.

Veteran skip Anette Norberg, along with her sister Cathrine (second), were the bronze medallists at the 1991 Winnipeg Worlds, and will have Eva Lund playing third and Helena Lingham as their lead. The alternate is Maria Engholm and Stefan Lund is coach.Engholm and Stefan Lund is coach.

Norberg has skipped the Swedish team at four World championships. She won a bronze medal in Glasgow in 1988, another bronze in 1989 in Milwaukee and won her third at the 1991 Winnipeg Worlds. She lost the 2001 Ford Worlds final to Canada's Colleen Jones in Lausanne, Switzerland. Norberg was also the third for Elisabeth Hogstrom's rink when Sweden won the 1988 World title.

The Norberg rink is the reigning European champions, with back to back wins in 2001 and 2002.

Ralph Stockli won the 1997 World Junior Championship in Karuizawa, Japan. As a junior he competed in five World Junior championships. Prior to winning gold in 1997, Stockli competed in Perth, Scotland in 1995 with a 3-6 record but rebounded to win the silver medal at the 1996 World Juniors in Red Deer, Alberta. After winning gold in 1997, he finished third at the 1998
World Juniors in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In 1994, Ralph was an alternate for skip Yannick Renggli in Sofia and won a bronze medal.

Joining Stockli in Winnipeg will be Claudio Pescia (third), Pascal Sieber (second) and Simon Strubin (lead). The team alternate is Marco Battilana and the team coach is Patrick Hurlimann.

Switzerland has always fielded strong international teams and will have the Nicole Strausak team from Berne competing for the World title in Winnipeg. The rest of the Swiss rink includes Selina Breuleux at third throwing skips rocks, second Madlaina Breuleux, and lead Bianca Roethlisberger. The team alternate is Carine Mattille and the coach is Pierre-Yves Grivel.

Strausak throws third stones and has been to Manitoba before. She was the alternate for Swiss skip Helga Oswald at the 1990 World Juniors in Portage la Prairie where they compiled a 6-5 record.

Strausak also played third for skip Luzia Ebnother at the 1999 Ford Worlds and again at the 2000 Ford Worlds in Glasgow, where they won silver.

The U.S. men's team from Bemidji, Minnesota is skipped by Pete Fenson with his brother Eric Fenson at third, second Shawn Rojeski and lead John Shuster. The team alternate is Scott Baird.

The team's coach is Robert Fenson, Pete's father, who is also competing at the World Seniors in Winnipeg the week prior to the Ford World Championships.

Fenson is a three-time American champion, winning the U.S. men's championships in 1993 and 1994. He was also a semi-finalist at the 1993 Worlds, and a five-time Minnesota State Men's champion and runner-up in 2003. Brother Eric Fenson was a 1991World Juniors bronze medallist and finished fifth at the 1992 Junior Worlds.

Skipped by Saskatchewan native Debbie McCormick, who now calls Madison, Wisconsin home, the U.S. women's team is a seasoned squad with a wealth of international experience.

Joining McCormick at third is Allison Pottinger, a Brampton, Ontario native, along with second Ann Swisshelm Silver, lead Tracy Sachtjen and alternate Joni Cotton. The team coach is Wally Henry.

McCormick's foursome won the American women's championship in Utica, New York on March 8 by defeating defending champion Patti Lank's Team USA.

McCormick has represented the United States at the last two Winter Olympics, finishing fifth in 1998 and fourth in 2002.