Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling at new Truro arena

Curling fans are in for a treat this week. Thirtyof the best men'sand women'steam are taking part in the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling.

The list of curlers in Truro is a who's who of the sport.

Both the men'sand women'sreigning world champs are in the hub town as well as several former world and Olympic champions.

"It's really nice to bring them all to your home town and showcase our nice new facility and our region," said Craig Burgess, a former competitive curler and the vice-chairman of the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling.

"I think fans are really going to think this is great to see this kind of play."

Tough competition

The new facility is the Rath Eastlink Community Centre. Just twoyears old, it cost more than $45 million to build.

Organizers of the event are hoping they can land more national and international events.The six days of curling will give Nova Scotia's best the chance to take on the world's best.

"For us to get into an event like this, it's going to be some very tough competition, but we'll see where were at," said Halifax skip Shawn Adams. "We need to get some good games against good teams so we're really looking forward to playing in our home province for sure."

The men'sside of the draw has teams from Sweden, Norway and Scotland along with 12 Canadian teams.

Former Olympic champion Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador is currently ranked second in the world.

"We've already been over to Europe, into Korea and all across Canada," said Gushue, a native of St. John's.

"It's nice to be playing at home, or at least as close to home as we get with just an hour and a half flight. We hope to get good support out here this week and it should be a fun event."

The women's event has a more international field.

EightCanadian rinks are joined by sevenother teams from as far away as Korea and Russia.

The event started Tuesday night.

There will be four draws today, Thursday and Friday.

The playoffs will get underway on Saturday.