Road to Sochi runs through Soo

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This article was published 09/12/2013 (4323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

By the time his plane touches down in Sochi, Russia in February, few curlers will have travelled as much as Ryan Fry.

Fry’s decade-long journey through a handful of Manitoba teams, to St. John’s, Nfld. and finally to tiny Sault Ste. Marie has paid off with a shot at Olympic gold.

Fry, 35, a former Manitoba men’s and junior men’s champion, on Sunday capped a nearly decade-long, Canada-wide search for curling success with the biggest prize of them all — the right to represent his country at the Winter Olympics.

The native Winnipegger and his Soo teammates — skip Brad Jacobs, second EJ Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden — completed a history-making undefeated run through the 2013 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings with a 7-4 win over Calgary’s John Morris in the men’s final at the MTS Centre Sunday afternoon.

It is the first time in the history of the Canadian Olympic curling trials a team, men’s or women’s, has gone undefeated. The Jacobs squad — also the defending Brier champions — went 7-0 in the round robin to advance directly to Sunday’s final.

It was all sweet vindication for Fry, who has been almost unique in curling in recent years for his repeated willingness to uproot himself and move in search of the right teammates. After trying first in Manitoba with an assortment of skips, including Jeff Stoughton, and then in St. John’s, Nfld. with 2006 Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue, it was in the remote outpost of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. that Fry finally found the combination he was looking for last year.

The combination clicked almost immediately, resulting first in a win at the Brier last March; then a trials berth at a last-chance bonspiel in Kitchener last month; and finally an undefeated run to the Olympics over the last week in Fry’s hometown.

“If I could write a perfect script to win the Olympic trials,” Fry said Sunday, “it would be to win it in the MTS Centre in front of my hometown. I’m speechless to be honest with you — it’s an unbelievable feeling.”

But as good as it felt to win it at home, Fry’s reaction to the event being over was markedly different than the one from Jennifer Jones, who on Saturday also won the right to represent Canada at the Olympics in front of her hometown, only to say she wished the event would never end.

“Oh man, I’m so glad it’s over to be honest,” said Fry. “It’s just the week in general. Your mind is going constantly — you don’t sleep great, you don’t eat great, you don’t drink much water. You’re just glad to get it over with.”

Fry and the rest of the Jacobs foursome will head to Sochi as the favourite in an event Canadian men have brought home gold the last two times and silver the two times before that. The Jacobs team were the silver medallists at the 2013 men’s worlds.

In the final Sunday afternoon, the Jacobs foursome jumped all over a first-end flash by Morris second Tyrel Griffith, converting it into a deuce and a 2-0 lead. But the Morris team authored a deuce of their own in the fifth and the game was tied 3-3 heading into the break.

But that was as close as Morris would get, with Jacobs authoring another deuce in the sixth end and then, memorably, one more deuce in the ninth on a nifty slash double-takeout that sealed the deal.

It was a disappointing finish for the Morris foursome, a first-year team from whom not much was expected this winter, but who defied long odds — first to get to this event and then to advance to the final.

“I don’t know if we were out of gas or what it was,” said Morris, who felt his team came out flat. “We didn’t put enough heat on them to get points. It’s frustrating because I felt we had a better chance. We didn’t play like we could have. But I’m proud of the boys. I felt we had a great week. I don’t think many teams gave us a chance and we fought really hard right to the end.”

Jacobs was incredulous in victory. “This team, what can I say. This is unbelievable. We won the Brier, we won the trials.

“A special group of guys — I love you all.”

 

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek