Right-side-up start for Jones

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This article was published 22/03/2009 (6255 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — It had all the makings of being an upsetting opening to their world women’s curling championship title defence.

A bad omen. Even a repeat of an international incident.

 

Instead, Jennifer Jones and her Canadian teammates simply laughed when they noticed that organizers at the Gangneung International Ice Rink preparing for Saturday’s opening ceremonies had hung the Canadian flag upside down on the pole coach Janet Arnott was supposed to carry.

But a gentle nudge to the host committee put the Maple Leaf right-side up in time for the opening.

And a few hours later, Team Canada was marching off the ice with its first victory, thumping China’s Bingyu Wang 11-5 Saturday night before maybe 200 fans in a rematch of last year’s world gold-medal final in Vernon, B.C.

"We were taking a picture in the back and that’s when we noticed they had it upside down," said a laughing Canadian second Jill Officer after the victory.

"We told them and they flipped it right away. We just thought it was funny. I don’t know if they just didn’t notice. But you gotta at least realize it. I mean, it’s probably one of the more recognizable flags. But we had a laugh over it."

You may remember the last time a Canadian flag was hung upside down at a sporting event, in 1992, when U.S. military types pulled it off marching in for a World Series game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Atlanta Braves.

That incident spawned national headlines.

This time? Just a few laughs, a few smiles and a relaxed attitude that showed up against the Chinese.

Canada stole one in the first, then took advantage of two great shots from third Cathy Overton-Clapham to score three in the third and stole one more in the fourth and never looked back.

"We wanted to go out there and feel comfortable with the ice," said Jones. "Obviously, there were a few shots here or there, but for the most part I felt pretty good with the ice."

Ice is one thing, but rocks are entirely another, and most of the contending teams have reported issues with a set of stones purchased recently by the host Korean federation that has never been used in a major competition — a stunning decision considering a world title will be decided in Gangneung along with the field for the Vancouver Olympics.

"It is odd, especially when there are so many good sets," said U.S. skip Debbie McCormick, after losing 7-5 to Russia’s Liudmilla Privivkova. "I don’t even know where this set came from."

For the record, Scotland looked thoroughly comfortable with the granite on Saturday.

Eve Muirhead’s Scots won their opening assignments, 6-4 over Mi-Yeon Kim of South Korea and 11-2 over Diana Gaspari of Italy to sit tied with reigning Olympic champ Anette Norberg of Sweden.

Norberg nearly suffered a shocking loss when she needed two extra ends to beat the Koreans. In the 11th, the Swede passed on an open draw to the eight-foot and chose to hit, but rolled out of the rings. She clinched the win with two in the 12th.

As for Jones, Overton-Clapham, Officer and lead Dawn Askin, on the docket Sunday were assignments with the U.S. (1 a.m. CT) and the Russians (6 a.m.).

"We’re going to have to get better with every game and be a little sharper," said Officer.

"We have some things we need to improve on. China probably didn’t have its best game and we know they can play better. We had some opportunities that we capitalized on.

"The rocks are new to us, which is fine, we’ll work with that. But it’s a far cry from Paisley (in Scotland, where the team played its first world championship event in 2005, missing out on a medal). We’re pretty happy with how things are here. We’re settled in, our stomachs have settled in. Nobody has had any problems."

 

— Canwest News Service