Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones loses to Sweden in Olympic curling
Canada’s Jennifer Jones had a fantastic opportunity to win a spectacular final rock win on Saturday morning
Article content
BEIJING – After falling behind early in a key match against the defending Olympic gold medalist, Canada’s Jennifer Jones had a fantastic opportunity to win a spectacular final stone on Saturday morning.
Advertisement
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article will continue below.
Article content
Unfortunately, as has been the case for large parts of the Olympic curling tournament for women so far, Jones was only half an inch out of goal and that led to a 7-6 loss against Swedish Anna Hasselborg.
Jones was down 7-5 in 10th placeth end, but had the hammer, and after two Swedish stones picked and sailed through the house there was a great chance to score three points for Canada.
Jones needed to make a thin take and get his shooter carambole from one of his own stones to a Swedish stone to take out the win. As complicated as it sounds, the Swedish team was convinced that Jones would make it.
“We really had a happy break,” said Wayne Middaugh, a Canadian curling legend who is now the coach of Team Sweden.
“Jen never misses that shot, ever. It was really lucky for us. Basically it was half a rock or a little thinner and it was probably there in three or four.”
Advertisement
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article will continue below.
Article content
Jones said her shooter hit a little too thick, and as a result, she took out her own stone, but did not get the carambola she was looking for.
It still looked like Canada could get two points to equalize the match and send to an extra end, but one measure benefited the Swedes.
“It was pretty thin,” Jones said of her last shot. “I had to hit less than a quarter of it and I thought it could come loose from the back of our rock and just touch them far enough to get our three. It was a hard blow but all you want is a blow to win when you are two behind. I was quite happy to have the opportunity. Unfortunately, it curled up too much, probably by about half an inch. It was not far away. “
The ensuing measurement puzzled Canadian third Kaitlyn Lawes. She was sure that Canada’s stone was the closer of the two.
Advertisement
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article will continue below.
Article content
“We were surprised that the measure did not go our way,” she said. “I’m actually still pretty shocked about it. I would have bet my house that we put other shots there.”
Canada was down 5-2 at halftime against a Hasselborg team that is the top-ranked team in the women’s competition in the Olympics.
Coming back and almost winning was an achievement in itself – Canada was the better team in the eighth, ninth and 10th end – but the fact is that it was still a loss and now Canada has a difficult position with 1-2.
With teams like two-time defending world champion Silvana Tirinzoni from Switzerland, Eve Muirhead from Great Britain and undefeated Tabitha Peterson from USA still on the schedule, the Canadians are in a tough situation to get to the four-team playoffs.
Advertisement
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article will continue below.
Article content
“I do not think you can afford so many more losses,” Jones said.
“We’ll have to get out and have a great 10 ends of curling every time. It’s such a tough field, it’s going to be so tight, and you can not afford too many more losses. We have to find ways to win a few games here. “
In 2018 in Pyeongchang and in 2014 in Sochi, the team took the women’s semifinals with a 5-4 record. This means that Jones can afford two more losses.
However, tiebreakers are no longer played in international curling, so if two teams have the same record, it will be about head-to-head matchups and accumulated results from the last stone-drawing competition held before each match.
Canada is currently in eighth place out of 10 teams in the Draw Shot Challenge.
Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman
Advertisement
This ad has not yet loaded, but your article will continue below.