Russ roars and so much more

Russ Howard roared, particularly on this stone (a missed draw for two in the seventh end) but to no avail, as he lost yesterday’s Bern Open finale to Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud by a 7-5 score.

The 2006 Olympic and two-time world curling champion had a 4-1 lead but watched the Norwegian 2010 Olympic hopefuls take two in the fourth end plus a big three in the sixth to assume control.

Howard previously won the event in 2007, beating Ulsrud 4-3 in the semifinal with a steal in an extra-end.

Of course, if you are following The Curling News Twitter page (aka Tweets) then you would be aware of these results, and more (check it out now for Barrie results, wheelchair curling results in Norway, and stuff about broken toes).

And on the TCN Twitpic page you can see – yes, actually see – a blow-by-blow account of the conclusion to the Bern Open semifinal between Ulsrud and Scotland’s Peter Loudon, in which Ulsrud took two in the eighth before producing the hit and roll of the tournament, in the extra-end, for the 6-4 win.

Meanwhile, in nearby Kuesnacht, a battle of 2010 Olympic women’s hopefuls took place at the Grasshopper Women’s Masters. When the smoke cleared, Germany’s Andrea Schoepp had stolen a 7-6, extra-end win over Debbie McCormick of the United States.

In London, more Olympic internationals are through to today’s playoffs of the Southwestern Ontario Women’s Cashspiel (SWOWC) along with two-time defending champion Rachel Homan of Ottawa, Sherry Middaugh, Alison Goring and others.

At Medicine Hat, the Meyers Norris Penny Charity Classic also wraps up today – for both men and women – and the first big U.S. Tour stop of the season took place in St. Paul, MN, with Thunder Bay’s Mike Pozihun bringing the title back to Canada.

[Thanks to Switzerland’s LAOLA TV curling channel and Europe’s Curling Champions Tour for the visuals]

Norberg wins Masters

2006 Olympic champion Anette Norberg is the 2009 Re/Max Women’s Masters champion after defeating Swedish rival Stina Viktorsson by an emphatic 8-4 score in the final at Basel.

Semi-finalists were USA Olympic representatives Debbie McCormick and Switzerland’s Fabienne Fuerbringer, while the quarter-finalists included Vancouver-bound Eve Muirhead of Great Britain and Germany’s Andrea Schoepp.

The Norberg victory follows a runner-up finish two weeks earlier in Oslo, when they were defeated in the championship final by Canada’s Jennifer Jones.

Jones and an impressive group of teams – including 2006 Olympic medallists Mirjam Ott and Shannon Kleibrink – are down to their last lives at Calgary’s Trail Appliances Grand Slam event in Calgary, which wraps up on Monday.

Curling calendar girl Daniela Jentsch

Well... this kitten is certainly out of the bag.

2009 Women of Curling calendar girl Daniela Jentsch of Germany has approved the full image release of her nude calendar pic, and the result is a feeding frenzy of Deutsch media.

Which will hopefully result in more sales of the fundraising calendar, too.

“I never thought this would cause so much attention,” says Dani, who played for Germany at the 2000 Ford Worlds and also skipped her country twice at the European Championships.

“Newspapers and TV stations keep calling me since the story was published.”

The situation is unusual, in that the calendar athlete/models usually avoid allowing the release of their image without cropping (see this example here). The idea is that by withholding selected, ah, portions of the image, the potential purchaser is more likely to actually purchase the fundraising product.

Jentsch made an exception for Germany’s Welt and just like that, here comes another calendar media pile-on. All within Germany, mind you.

And after consulting with Dani, she has decided that The Curling News Blog can also publish her full calendar image... meaning that you, dear reader, can see one of the 16 athlete/models above, as fully photographed by Ana Arce.

“We can’t let our non-German curling friends miss out, right?” Jentsch laughs.

“But seriously, if this will help sell more calendars to help all the girls and their teams, absolutely.”

Other media pickup we have seen includes RP Online, Westdeutsche Zeitung, Eurosport (only competition photos, please!), Berliner Morgenpost and even this Austrian paper, which also links back to The Curling News.

There’s also this “Sexy Wintersport” feature from Bild, which includes Dani plus fellow German calendar curling girl Anna Hartelt along with athletes from other sports.

Hier gehen wir wieder!

As for Dani’s on-ice career, it has recently jumped from slow to very busy.

“My federation is checking to see if I’m eligible to compete with Andrea Schoepp and if permitted, I’ll play nationals with them,” reports Jentsch.

“If not, they’ll will play without me and if they win, I’ll go to the worlds in Korea with them.

“No matter what, my Olympic goal is more realistic now, since I was not curling much until last week. We went to Berne and came second, so even with a three-month break I got the results... and a few sore muscles.”

So there you have it. Another plug for the 2009 Women of Curling.

PS: on the left side of the page beside the Welt story there is a poll asking “Which winter sport interests you most?” Curling is currently ranked fourth with first-place Biathalon holding a whopping near-forty per cent lead over second place Skiing. Blogreaders know what to do when there’s another online poll with Curling not in the lead... right, gang?