Sweeping up brighter prospects

A new national curling event is being launched to ready China's men's and women's teams with a challenging environment to prepare for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The annual China Open Curling competition, which will debut later this year, will feature 16 international teams, including the host squads.

"Through the China Open, we hope to attract more international curlers to compete here, which in turn will help to improve our national teams," Sun Yuanfu, president of the Chinese Curling Association, said at Tuesday's media conference.