Playing in what acted as the sport's Paralympic test event at the Ice Cube Curling Centre, the curling venue for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, Canada beat Sweden 4-3 in a tightly-fought final to lead the world rankings ahead of Sweden in second place and Korea in third.

The wheelchair curling ranking system is based on the same principles as the WCF's model for the athletes' able-bodied counterparts, with nations being assigned points according to their team's final placing at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship, the World Championship qualification event and the Paralympic Winter Games.

The World Wheelchair Curling Championship sees teams earning 240 points for placing first, 200 points for second, 180 for third and so on until tenth place where there is 70 points available, while finishes at the Paralympics count for double the points, so first would be 480.

"Wheelchair curling has come a long way since the first official World Championship took place in 2002," said WCF President Kate Caithness.

"The performance of the teams at this year's World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Sochi, Russia, showed just how competitive the game has become.

"We hope that this new ranking will encourage even more WCF member associations to develop the discipline and grow the field of teams participating at the World Championship qualification event."

The next WCF wheelchair curling rankings are due to be released after the Sochi 2014 Paralympics, which take place on March 7-16.

The full ranking can be seen here.

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