Canada ready for scariest game
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/02/2010 (5905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
VANCOUVER — It might be the scariest game in curling, and no team has more to lose in it than Kevin Martin’s Team Canada foursome.
A perfect round-robin record, capped by Tuesday’s 10-3 win over China’s Fengchun Wang, accompanied by pre-event status as overwhelming gold-medal favourites in addition to four years of work all aimed at playing in Saturday’s gold-medal game at the Vancouver Olympic Centre — it all means nothing unless Martin, third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert win Thursday’s semifinal.
“I think it is a scary game,” agreed Hebert after Tuesday’s win. “You certainly want to put yourself in a position to win a gold or silver medal; you hate to go out there and fight for the bronze.”
Whom Canada will play Thursday in the semifinal won’t be decided until after today’s fourth-place tiebreaker between Britain’s David Murdoch and Sweden’s Niklas Edin, who finished with 5-4 round-robin records.
The other semi features second-place Thomas Ulsrud of Norway (7-2) and third-place Markus Eggler of Switzerland (6-3).
“We’ve been in a lot of the big games, and this is just another piece of the puzzle,” said Morris. “We’ve had high expectations of ourselves all year, and through the whole four-year process to be in this position, and this is where we’re at. Bring it on; it’s time for the playoffs.”
Women focus on playoff
HERE is Carolyn Darbyshire’s approach for the time between now and Thursday morning’s Olympic women’s curling semifinal.
A little rest. A little practice. Some time with the Canadian team’s sports psychologist. And absolutely no further exposure to the Winter Olympics.
“You know what? I’ve been watching the W network and HGTV because I don’t want to watch any of the Olympics,” said the second for Cheryl Bernard’s Calgary quartet.
Her teammates — skip Cheryl Bernard, vice-skip Susan O’Connor and lead Cori Bartel — haven’t taken the same head-in-the-sand approach as Darbyshire, but their focus on the task at hand has been no less keen, and it’s paid off with a first-place finish and the top seeding for the semifinals Thursday following a 6-5 extra-end win over Britain’s Eve Muirhead at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.
Canada will take on fourth-place Mirjam Ott of Switzerland, while Sweden’s Anette Norberg will play Bingyu Wang of China.
— Canwest News Service
