‘It feels like we have family here’ Fans from home a boost

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This article was published 24/03/2009 (6373 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GANGNUENG, South Korea — It’s the support you get when you least expect it that means the most.

Such was the case Monday at the Gangneung International Ice Rink for Jennifer Jones’s Canadian champs.

Playing thousands of kilometres from their hometown of Winnipeg, Jones, third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin hit the ice to take on Norway’s Marianne Rorvik, when in marched about a dozen blue-clad Canadians.

As it turned out, the Canadians hailed from Alberta and just happened to be curlers themselves — two juvenile teams, skipped by Brittany Whittemore of Red Deer and Craig Bourgonje of Sundre, along with their adult chaperones, who were participating in an exchange with the Korean federation.

And in the perfect-timing department, their exchange coincided with the Mount Titlis world women’s championship in this city of 250,000 on South Korea’s east coast.

It was a nice surprise for Team Canada, who rewarded their fans with an 8-5 win over Norway to improve to 5-0 in the 12-team round-robin, tied for top spot with Denmark’s surprising Angelina Jensen.

“We were saying it was kind of like having family here,” Askin said. “And we were actually just saying that we’ve had a decent amount of fans here, considering where we are in the world. It’s totally a boost of energy, and they’re coming again (today), which is great.”

It wasn’t Canada’s prettiest game, but Jones did manage to get past a shaky start — she didn’t touch paint in the first end when she attempted a draw for two — to put up deuces in the third (open hit) and fifth (straight-back double takeout) ends, then put the win in the bank with three in the eighth, converting Rorvik’s last-rock miss into an open draw for the trey.

“It had its moments,” Jones agreed. “We had a couple of misses here and there, but I thought they played very well. There were a lot of good shots being made by both teams and we finally broke it open in the eighth end.”

In today’s morning draw, Jones defeated Germany’s Andrea Schoepp 8-7 to improve her record to 6-0. She plays Sweden’s two-time world champ and 2006 Olympic gold-medallist Anette Norberg of Sweden in today’s other contest.

The fan support helps overcome the feelings of homesickness, especially playing in as foreign an environment as South Korea, Jones said.

“I was so excited,” she said. “We’ve had Canadian fans every draw. Some of them were just here for the weekend, and then all these people in blue jackets showed up. It was awesome. It feels like we have family here.”

Earlier Monday, Canada laid a 9-3 beating on Scotland’s Eve Muirhead, putting the game away with five in the fifth end.

— Canwest News Service

Standings

(after Draw 9)

Country (Skip) W L

Canada (Jones) 6 0

Denmark (Jensen) 5 1

Sweden (Norberg) 4 1

China (Wang) 5 1

Switzerland (Ott) 4 2

Scotland (Muirhead) 3 2

Germany (Schopp) 2 4

Italy (Gaspari) 1 4

South Korea (Kim) 1 4

Russia (Privivkova) 1 5

U.S. (McCormick) 2 4

Norway (Rorvik) 0 6

MONDAY RESULTS

Canada 9 Scotland 3

Canada 8 Norway 5

TUESDAY GAMES

Canada 8 Germany 7

Canada vs. Sweden (6 a.m. CT)

Please see www.winnipegfreepress.com for updates on world women’s curling championship