The challenge of writing for a weekly publication is an interesting one some weeks. As I tackle this week's assignment, the Olympic curling isn't quite finished and the Manitoba senior championships at the Brandon Curling Club haven't yet begun.

Those are the two events that are at the top of my list these days but since I can't tell you anything you don't already know about the results of these two events, it's time to dip into my 'random thoughts' file.

Jill Officer was a guest on my radio show last week. Jennifer Jones and her team are still shaking their heads, trying to figure out what went wrong in Edmonton, but they have moved on. Their recent Canadian championship win qualifies them for another trip to a world championship played in Canada. They won their only world title in Vernon, B.C. and hope Swift Current will be as good to them.

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In Swift Current, Jones and her team will face the teams from China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and U.S.A. Not all of the teams have been identified yet. Although some countries will send their Olympic teams, others will not. For example, Switzerland made the decision some time ago to give a second team some international experience by not sending their Olympians to the worlds.

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Imagine how the women's team from Latvia is going to define pressure when it plays in its first ever women's worlds later in March. Latvia qualified for a world curling championship for the first time. They came out of the B pool at the European championships. They had a record of 4-1 in round-robin play and starting from the bottom side in a Page playoff format, Latvia beat Czech Republic, Austria and Netherlands to win the B championship.

In the Europeans, the bottom two teams in the A pool automatically drop to the B pool for next year while the top two move up from B to A. Next year, Italy and England will drop while Latvia and Netherlands move up.

And there is an added bonus for the B pool champion. They get to challenge the eighth-place team for their spot in the current year world championship. This year that was Finland, and Latvia beat them twice to earn that trip to the worlds in Swift Current.

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Speaking of pressure to win: What do you think of the straight knockout format of the playoffs at the Olympics? It is different for sure from the Page playoff concept that seems to be universal in curling these days. That system evolved from older systems of best-of-three playoffs because curling wanted a playoff system that could guarantee a time for the final playoff game. Well, a straight knockout format surely does that.

Hockey plays straight knockout. A perfect record or last in the standings make no difference once the playoffs start at the Olympics. Events like the head-to-head competitions in short-track speed skating, ski-cross and snowboard-cross come down to sudden death. You do your qualifying runs. If you're good enough, you're in the playoffs. After that no matter where you finished in qualifying, you start even. I have no problem with curling running the same win-or-else playoff system.

As I said at the outset – random thoughts. For complete Manitoba curling coverage, scores, news, and opinions – check out my website (www.thecurler.com).