NISKU, Alta. — It'll be a 2016 world junior class reunion when Matt Dunstone and Bruce Mouat meet in Sunday's men's final at the CO-OP Tour Challenge.
Both skips were medallists, with Dunstone taking home bronze for Canada and Mouat capturing gold for Scotland.
That event is almost like a who's who of the current top flight in the sport. Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller, who finished fourth, is a Grand Slam of Curling contender, while silver medallist Korey Dropkin of the United States is also a mainstay in the series. The hits keep coming as Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell and Sweden's Rasmus Wranå skipped their nations in the event as well.
Now, all these years later, Dunstone and Mouat square off in a Grand Slam final. Dunstone advanced with a 6-5 victory over John Epping in an all-Canadian clash and Mouat eliminated Italy's Joël Retornaz 4-2 during Saturday night's semifinals.
"We've competed against each other quite a few times at multiple different levels, going way back to the 2016 world juniors that we won, but Matt played really well that week," Mouat said. "It's been nice to see both teams progress.
"If you look back at that world juniors, it's kind of crazy how many of the skips are still around. Korey was there, the Ramsfjell team, like pretty much the entire team, was there. So yeah, it's very, very cool."
Mouat has been the most successful alumnus from the class, winning 10 Grand Slam titles — including four last season alone to set a series record.
Dunstone captured his second just last month at the AMJ Masters, defeating Scotland's Team Ross Whyte in London, Ont., and finds himself in a second straight Grand Slam final.
"Yeah, that was an insane juniors and obviously, Bruce has been the class of that group for the better part of a decade now," Dunstone said. "That's the team everybody's been chasing for a really long time."
Perhaps the fact that they have kept playing against each other for a decade now and raising the bar is why all these skips from that junior class have reached the pinnacle of curling.
"It's a pretty good class of 2016 that has obviously come through," Mouat said. "It's actually pretty cool that we've all kind of pushed each other to be better, and it's nice to see that we're all kind of around the playoffs at a Slam now."
Mouat enters the final ranked No. 1 in the world based on total points, while Dunstone tops the year-to-date charts.
"What makes me so excited is you have the best team in the world against probably the hottest team in the world," Dunstone said. "It's going to make for a good final, and I think it's a great test for us to see where we actually stack up."
HOMAN TAKES ON TIRINZONI
The two best teams in the world will also meet in the women's final as No. 1 Rachel Homan of Canada faces No. 2 Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland.
Homan edged Sweden's Team Anna Hasselborg 5-4 in a shootout, and Tirinzoni topped Team Xenia Schwaller 7-3 in an all-Swiss showdown.
"Oh my God, it feels awesome," Team Tirinzoni second Carole Howald said. "I mean, there are the best teams in the world (here) and to be able to play another final, and now against Homan again, that feels great. We like to play against them in the final again and take the revenge."
These two are no strangers to Grand Slam finals, with Homan set to make her 32nd appearance in a championship game in the series and Tirinzoni entering her 16th.
Many of those have been against each other, as Sunday will be the ninth time they square off for a Grand Slam title. Homan holds a 6-2 advantage through their eight previous contests — including last year's Canadian Open held in the same building.
The first time they met in a Grand Slam final happened in this event during its inaugural running 10 years ago in Paradise, N.L. That was the infamous "fog bowl" final as Homan had to throw her last rock through the haze but missed, giving up a steal of two as Tirinzoni took her first title in the series.
This will also be the third straight Grand Slam final between the two teams. Tirinzoni came out on top to capture the Players' Championship in April at the end of last season, and Homan was victorious when they met at last month's AMJ Masters.
"It's very comfortable now. We've met in so many finals," said Emma Miskew, Homan's longtime teammate who throws second stones. "They always play well. We're gonna have to be sharp, but it's always a very friendly rivalry and there's a lot of respect there for them."
Howald is confident in her team's chances.
"It's always a great battle against them, and I think we feel very good this week," Howald said. "I think if we're going to keep playing like we did the whole week, we have good chances."
Homan is set to appear in a record seventh consecutive Grand Slam women's final, but she might not be done rewriting the history book Sunday. Both Homan and Miskew earned their 18th Grand Slam titles at the AMJ Masters, tying legendary men's skip Kevin Martin for the most among all players, with an opportunity to become the first to reach 19.
HOW TO WATCH
The women's final kicks off Championship Sunday at Noon ET / 10 a.m. MT, followed by the men's final at 4:30 p.m. ET / 2:30 p.m. MT.
Watch live on rockchannel.com, Sportsnet or Sportsnet+.
