Canada’s Martin defeats Czechs, Germans, questioners

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This article was published 07/04/2009 (6318 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONCTON, N.B. — Kevin Martin tried his best to duck the question Monday at the Moncton Coliseum.

Told that Scottish skip David Murdoch had made the claim in the Eye Opener newspaper — the free publication handed out to fans at the Ford world men’s curling championship — that the worlds field was tougher than last month’s Tim Hortons Brier field at the Calgary Saddledome, the defending world champ attempted to go into diplomat mode.

“Well, I don’t think I should say anything, really,” said Martin. “None of the European or Asian teams play in the Brier, and I guess from the Canadian point of view, we have, so I don’t think it’s a level playing field as far as commenting both ways.”

Except, it was pointed out to Martin, no one is more qualified to comment, seeing as how he’s the only one in the field here who’s played in both the Brier and world championship, for two years running; Murdoch was at the Calgary Brier, but he didn’t play.

So what does he really think about the Murdoch statement?

“Obviously, Canada has a pretty good record as far as world curling goes, and it’s (Brier) a tough event, a tough event to win,” said Martin. “There are five or six teams at a Brier that could win any event on the planet.”

True? Not true? It’s a thoroughly subjective argument, one that can never be compellingly answered until the sixth-place team at the Brier (for the record, this year it was B.C.’s Sean Geall) gets a crack at the worlds field.

But the top-end talent in Canada seems to be getting the job done at the world championship on a regular basis, and Martin’s 5-0 record is more backing for that statement.

Martin, backed up by third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert, drilled Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic 10-4 before a testing 6-4 triumph over Andy Kapp of Germany on Monday to keep pace with Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, who’s 5-0 after posting a pair of tough wins on Monday, 7-5 over John Shuster of the U.S. and 7-6 over Fengchun Wang of China.

And wouldn’t you know it: Canada takes on Norway in the featured game of the week so far, tonight.

Ulsrud doesn’t necessarily disagree with Murdoch’s statement.

“It’s not far off,” said Ulsrud. “I think last year, (Martin) was unbeaten in the Brier and he lost a couple in the worlds (to China and Murdoch in the Page playoff one vs. two game; Martin came back to beat Murdoch in the gold-medal game). I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but I’d be surprised if he goes unbeaten this week.”

Ulsrud’s coach, Ole Ingvaldsen, who’s helmed the Norwegian men’s program for a decade, isn’t so sure, though.

“I very much doubt that, but it could be on the same level,” said Ingvaldsen, who was in Calgary for the last weekend of the Brier. “When (Glenn) Howard played Kevin Martin, those were the best games I ever saw.”

–Canwest News Service

Standings

(After Draw 8)

Country (Skip) W L

Canada (Martin) 5 0

Norway (Ulsrud) 5 0

Scotland (Murdoch) 4 1

U.S. (Shuster) 3 2

France (Dufour) 3 2

Germany (Kapp) 2 3

Japan (Morozumi) 2 3

Switzerland (Stoeckli) 2 3

Denmark (Schmidt) 2 3

Czech Rep. (J.Snitil) 1 4

Finland (Kiiskinen) 1 4

China (Wang) 0 5

MONDAY RESULTS

Canada 10 Czech Republic 4

Canada 6 Germany 4

TODAY’S GAMES

Canada vs. Switzerland (8 a.m.)

Norway vs. Canada (5:30 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY GAMES

Finland vs. Canada (8 a.m.)

Canada vs. U.S. (1 p.m.)