Unfortunately, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic prospects for the men’s curling team have ended following the 2009 World Championships which were contested last week.

After two years of strong performances at World Championship level in 2007 and 2008, the Australians missed out on a place at this year’s titles after stumbling at the lead-in Pacific Curling Championships late last year.

That left them relying on poor World Championship performances from rival nations China, Finland and Denmark, and while Finland did the right thing, finishing last, the other two teams did enough to relegate Australia to 11th in the world, one place outside the Olympic nation quota for Vancouver.