BELFAST – It took a series of tiebreakers to settle the matter, but a Belfast-based group on Sunday won the right to represent the United States in an international wheelchair curling competition.

The local curlers will travel to Sursee, Switzerland, in January to compete against 12 other teams from around the world.

Members of the Belfast squad that will travel to curl are Doug Sewall of Orono, Wes Smith of Glenburn, Sam Woodward of Surry and Loren Kinney of Hallowell.

Aside from doing well in that venue, there is more at stake in the Swiss competition: The top eight teams in the tournament will be invited to the Paralympics Winter Games in Italy in 2006, where they will compete on the same stage as the Olympians.

On Saturday, two teams from the Belfast Curling Club – which include members from around the state – faced off against a team from Utica, N.Y. Though there was a spirit of good fun and camaraderie, there was some nail biting as games came down to the wire.

When the New York team won a game, cheers rose up from the visitors and a fist or two was pumped into the air.

Comparable to shuffleboard or bocce ball, curling involves trying to slide a 42-pound “stone” across ice to get closest to the center of a painted circle. Players rely on teammates to knock an opponent’s stone out of the circle or land their stone in a position to guard off an effort to score.

Curlers stride up to a line to deliver their stones, while teammates madly sweep the ice in front of the stone to reduce friction and keep the stone moving.

In the wheelchair version, competitors use a stick to push the stones across the ice, and there is no sweeping.

The Belfast club was a logical choice for the competition, longtime member Mary Dutch said, because the club is accessible to handicapped people. Curlers from out of town stay at the Belfast Comfort Inn, which is also accessible, she said.

Bob Prenoveau, 38, of Chittenango, N.Y., has been curling for only two months. Stricken with cerebral palsy, he has used a wheelchair since he was 14, though he can get around with braces.

Wheelchair curling provides “a great avenue to stay active,” he said. “It gets you out.”

Prenoveau also participates in wheelchair basketball.

For the weekend, Prenoveau has been “traded” to a Belfast team because the New York team needed a woman participant. Dutch jokingly referred to him as “Borrowed Bob.”

The hardest part of learning the sport is understanding the strategy, Prenoveau said.

Each four-member squad has a “skip,” who literally calls the shots, directing members to slide their stones to bump an opponent’s stone or to try for the middle of the circle.

“It’s probably 75 percent strategy,” Prenoveau said of curling.

At the same time, precise execution is required, as the difference between a good shot and bad shot can be an inch or two, he said.

“Each game is different, each sheet of ice is different,” so curlers must adjust, Prenoveau said.

Danell Libby, 34, of Gray is in her third season of wheelchair curling. Confined to a wheelchair since age 18 because of a spinal injury, she nonetheless embraces active sports, participating in wheelchair basketball, football and rugby.

Libby remembers her introduction to curling. After sliding her stone, she was ready to wheel away to block something or tackle someone, she said laughing.

She since has learned to accept the relative passivity of curling and has embraced the sport.

“It opens up another world,” she said. “It’s a really great social sport.”

Libby has considered trying to form a women’s team.

Tatania Hansen, 28, of Utica, N.Y., traveled to Belfast with her husband, Tom Hansen, who is wheelchair-bound. Tom was once very active in outdoor sports, but was badly injured in a snowmobile accident.

“He used to be a motocross racer,” she said.

Hansen said her husband suffers with chronic pain, and sometimes she needs to encourage him to curl with his team, but his competitive side comes alive when he’s out on the ice.

“He enjoys doing it once he gets out there,” she said.