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Canada take GOLD at Torino Paralympics GOLD - Canada
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March 17th: Sweden beat Norway 10-3 to win bronze. Norway, deflated after coming so close to winning their semi-final match against Canada, gave up steals of 3 in the 2nd and 6th ends. and were outplayed by a Swedish team that curled 62%. Paralympic playoffs do not use the Page system, so Sweden, who beat Canada in round robin play, did not get an opportunity to face them in the medal round. March 17th: Canada play Great Britain for gold in Saturday's final. Canada beat semi-final opponent Norway 5-4 on a steal of 1 in the 6th end. Skip Chris Daw threaded a tap-back through a crowded front to sit shot top of the button, and outscore 2 Norwegian stones touching the 4 foot. Great Britain stole 3 in the 1st end of their semi-final against Sweden and went on to a comfortable 7-3 win. Sweden only managed to curl 35% as a team, with skip Jalle Jungnell struggling at 23% for the game. Sweden and Norway play for bronze. The gold medal game is tomorrow 2AM pacific time. Standings after round robin
play
* Norway beat Denmark 4-3 in a tie-break |
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March 15th: Canada top the table after round robin play, dispatching host Italy in the 7th and final draw 5-3. Canada, with the hammer, took 2 in the 1st and stole singles in the next two ends. Though Italy scored 2 in the 4th and stole 1 in the 5th, Canada took their single in the final end to secure victory. They will play Norway in Friday's semi-final. In other action, Great Britain beat USA 5-2, stealing single points in 4 of the 6 ends. Norway, early leaders, regrouped to beat Switzerland 5-4 and Denmark, who had won 4 straight, crashed 10-2 to Sweden. Norway (4-3) faced
Denmark (4-3) in the afternoon tie-break. Denmark started well, stealing
singles in the first 2 ends, but gave up a steal in the 4th to stand
2-2. They took 1 in the 5th, but Norway's skip
Rune Lorentsen made the shot
of the match with his final stone, wicking off a Danish stone to roll
into the four foot for the winning point. Play continues Friday with Canada playing Norway and Great Britain facing Sweden in the medal round. March 14th: Draw 6 - Canada and Great Britain, both 3-2, provided the marquee match-up in the afternoon draw with the winner assured of at least a tie-break place in the medal round. Canada took early control, scoring 4 in the 2nd, and were 2 up without the hammer in the 5th. That's when their hitting, so reliable early, failed them. GB poured rocks into the house and with 3 already scoring and a lone Canada stone at the back of the 12 foot, GB skip Frank Duffy had to choose a draw full 12 for 4, or a hit for 5 with his final stone. His attempted hit floated wide, and Canada escaped, giving up just 3 to fall behind 6-5. Canada skip Chris Daw's final stone clutch hit and stick facing 4 in the 6th end, scored 1 to send the game into an extra end. With Canadian rocks providing guards, GB were lying 3 when Canada 3rd Gerry Austgarden played a perfect hit and roll to the button. British attempts to draw through the cover failed to dislodge it, and Canada stole a 7 - 6 victory. In other matches Denmark joined Canada at the top of the table at 4 and 2, winning their 4th straight by dispatching Switzerland 8-3. Steals of 3 in the 2nd and 2 more in the 3rd gave them a comfortable victory. Team USA, after the shock defeat of Canada in the morning draw, lost their slim chance of competing for a medal when they gave up 3 steals to Italy in a 6-1 loss. Their wins assure Canada and Denmark at least a Tie-break game for a place in the medal round. If current form holds, they will be joined by Great Britain and the winner of the match between Norway and Switzerland. But in 6 end games, anything can and has happened, and we could still have 5 teams with 4 and 3 records after round robin play. March 14th: Draw 5 - Team USA, at the bottom of the table and with favoured Canada and Great Britain still to play, pulled off an upset win against Canada 5 - 4 in the morning draw. They stole 1 in the opening end, held Canada to 1 in the second and after a blank in 3, came out after the break with a 4 ender. Canada needed to steal 2 in the final end, but USA skip Wes Smith's takeout with the final stone, held them to just 1. In other matches, Denmark continued their good form after a poor start by beating fading Norway 7 - 3. In the 4th Rune Lorentsen, throwing 4th stones for Norway, was heavy on a draw to a crowded four foot, promoting a Danish stone onto the Norwegian shot rock on the button, and allowing the Danes to score 4. Great Britain beat Italy with a 5 spot in the third on skip Frank Duffy's two double takeouts. March 13th: Draw 4 - Unbeaten Norway fell to Canada in a high scoring match featuring the top of the table teams. Canada stole 3 in the 1st, but gave up a steal of 3 in the 3rd to fall behind 5-3 at he break. Canada took 3 of their own in the 4th and a Chris Daw draw to the 8 foot facing 2 with the last rock, won the game. Inconsistent Great Britain rebounded by beating Sweden 7 - 2. GB stole in each of the first 4 ends. Skip Frank Duffy executed a perfect hit-and-stick with his final stone in the 4th end to sit 2 with lots of cover, and Jalle JUNGNELL was unable to find the rings to keep his side in the game. March 13th: Draw 3 - Norway are the only unbeaten team after 3 draws beating Great Britain 7 - 6. After giving up 3 in the 1st, they scored 4 in the 2nd set up by their 3rd Geir Arne SKOGSTAD's double takeout.. A steal of 2 in the 5th sealed the victory. Canada, other unbeaten team, took an early 4-0 against Sweden going into the 3rd end break, but were unable to follow up. Sweden took 2 in the 4th, and followed with steals in the 5th and 6th to win 5 -4 Canada take on Norway in the afternoon draw, while Great Britain play Sweden. March 12th: Canada had the best possible start, beating 2 countries expected to be competitors in the medal round. In the morning draw they beat Denmark 6-3. The Canadians were down 3-2 after 3, and skip Daw faced 3 Danish stones in the fourth, but drew to the four foot with his last stone, taking 1. A steal of 3 in the 5th gave Canada their winning margin. In other 1st round play, the tournament favourites Great Britain were beaten by Switzerland, who stole 1 in the 3rd and 2 more in the 4th and won 4-3. In the second round afternoon draw, Canada stole their way to victory over Switzerland 5 - 1. In the 5th, Daw's double takeout snuffed a Swiss threat as Canada took 1 and went on to steal 2 in the final end. Norway completed an opening day sweep beating USA 10-3, following their 9-3 win over Italy in the opening round. Hosts Italy opened their account with a draw 2 win over Sweden 7-1. Though 6 end games can sometimes be a lottery, Canada's 65% team average, with lead Sonja Gaudet shooting 15% better than second ranked GB's Angie Malone, and 3rd Gerry Austgarden shooting 78% to lead the 3rds, shows their 2 and 0 record was not a fluke. March 11th: Team Canada take on Denmark in Draw 1 Sunday morning 11am local time. (PST is minus 9 hours) The two teams competed in a warm-up tournament in Czechoslovakia but did not meet head to head. Denmark won a surprise victory over Great Britain in the round robin, but the Scotland-based British team reversed that result in the final. March 11th: Team Canada players use a square-facing side pendulum delivery with the exception of 3rd Gerry Austgarden's outturn, delivered from a push that begins under his chin. To keep the rocks closer to the body, reducing the necessity to lean sideways to align the delivery, they use narrow tires and wheels without push rims. World Champion skip Frank Duffy attributes his success to experience in ice-reading. Absence of sweeping makes accurate ice-calls even more critical. Team Canada's adoption of a team-standard pendulum delivery aims to assist skip Chris Daw's ice-calling Basic strategy in wheelchair curling played under WCF rules has changed from the able-bodied model first coached. At this year's Canadian Nationals most teams were asking their leads to come into the house, challenging the opposing lead (invariably female) to throw takeouts. Finesse shots like freezes are extremely low percentage and because the stone has to be touching some part of the centre line at delivery, draw angles can be significantly restricted. Pendulum deliveries maximise weight, and we can expect Team Canada to be a hitting team. March 9th: Team Canada, coming off their success at their National Championships in Richmond BC in February, take on 7 other nations at the first appearance of wheelchair curling at a Paralympics. Based on their performance at the 2004 (3rd) and 2005 (6th) World Championships. Team Canada is ranked #4 in the world behind Great Britain, Switzerland and Denmark. For more information on how teams are ranked, CLICK HERE (go to page 25) Canada open the campaign against 3 of the stronger sides in the tournament and will be looking get off to a quick start before their game against favourites Great Britain in the penultimate draw next Wednesday. |
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Results and schedule (times are local - for PST subtract 9 hours) Click on a match to see line scores and match report - needs Adobe Reader
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Team Canada
Team Denmark
Team Great Britain
Team Italy
Team Norway
Team Sweden Team Switzerland Team USA
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 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. |
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