Showing posts with label worlds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worlds. Show all posts

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Bronze or bust













GANGNEUNG, Korea – Team Canada put in a valiant effort against Sweden this afternoon, but it was not to be.

Canadian curling fans, so used to seeing Jennifer Jones and Co. make wild comebacks, almost saw yet another one today.

In total control in the ninth end, one up with hammer, the Joneses ran into trouble – missing five of eight shots, including both of Jennifer’s – and dropped a steal of two.

In the 10th, things didn’t look much better when Dawn Askin was very light on a guard and Cathy O came light on an essential come around.

But JJ took matter into her own hands, making a hit and roll on her first one and then letting fly with a delicate chip ’n flop attempt on her last one, and exceedingly difficult shot with a razor-thin margin of error.

As Jill Officer said, the skipper missed it “by millimetres.”

In the 10th end , with the ice straightening out, Jones’ long guard effort couldn’t be stuffed behind, and she was a tad heavy too, and Anette Norberg of Sweden followed her down for the freeze, and the win.

Great effort, and the first time in a long while – possibly ever? – that a 9-2 record only got you into the Page 3/4 game.

With a two-time world champ and defending Olympic champion as your fourth-place opponent.

Hey now.

Nice event going on here in Gangneung.

Nice WCF pic by Lee Young Gyu, taken as the skipper realized her fate in the fateful ninth end. Click to expand photo size.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Sexiest curlers poll























Okay.

We probably shouldn’t do this.

But we’re going to do it anyway.

A blog titled Euro Women is running a poll to decide the Sexiest Woman of the 2009 World Curling Championship.

There have only been 12 votes cast over the duration of the poll... which has only a couple of days left online.

The contestants (as chosen by the blogsite) are:

Jennifer Jones (Canada)
Madeleine Dupont (Denmark)
Camilla Jensen (Denmark)
Eve Muirhead (Scotland)
Jackie Lockhart (Scotland)
Eva Lund (Sweden)
Debbie McCormick (USA)
Allison Pottinger (USA)
Marianne Roervik (Norway)
Liudmila Privivkova (Russia)
Melanie Robillard (Germany)
Ekaterina Galkina (Russia)
Carmen Schaefer (Switzerland)

Although we are admittedly contributing to the sexploitation of some truly skilled curling athletes, we look in the mirror and realize that, well, we could be accused of doing so already.

And so.

And so again, quite a while ago now.

Thus keeping with our mandate – to show you just about everything that is out there in the world of curling – we present the blog page... and with it your chance to vote.

PHOTO: Denmark’s Camilla Jensen (left) and Madeleine Dupont in Page playoff action Friday night in Gangneung

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Scottish curling history in Vancouver























VANCOUVER – Scotland’s Eve Muirhead and lead Sarah McIntyre (can’t forget the front-enders, right?) have made history here at the new Vancouver Olympic Centre by winning their third consecutive World Junior Championship in a very well-played, see-saw 8-6 win over Canada’s Kaitlyn Lawes.

Story here.

In the above World Curling Federation photo by Andrew Klaver, Canadian third Jenna Loder directs the line with Scotland’s Muirhead (right) and Anna Sloan in the background.

World Junior men’s final now underway: Canada’s smooth Brett Gallant and Denmark’s fiesty Rasmus Stjerne are battling in the fifth end, with the Danes stealing the fourth end for a 3-2 lead.

See the end of the WCF story for links to the live scoring, which creaked and groaned during the women’s final due to overwhelming demand...

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Calling U.S. curling fans











VERNON – So, have you heard about WCSN?

They are the new online partner to NBCOlympics.com, and they are webstreaming some of the 2008 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship matches across America, free of charge. They’ll also be doing same for the 2008 World Men’s in Grand Forks, North Dakota, starting in early April.

So click here, and start watching!