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Jones feelin’ sharp at season-ender

Sat, April 14, 2007
UPDATED: 2007-04-14 02:18:40 MST

By CAMERON MAXWELL, CALGARY SUN

Life’s been pretty good for Jennifer Jones’ rink lately.

A 5-4 triumph over Kelley Law’s B.C. rink last night gave the defending champion from Winnipeg a berth in tonight’s final of the season-ending World Curling Tour Players’ Championship at the Corral.

They’ll take on Scotties and world champion Kelly Scott of Kelowna (8 p.m.), who beat Calgary’s Cheryl Bernard 7-2 in the other semi.

As Jones, third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin look to defend their Players’ title, Jones acknowledged her rink is curling the best it has all season.

“At the Scotties, we just weren’t sharp all week, even though we had some good games but we just weren’t consistent as we would have liked to have been,” said Jones, who lost in the semifinal of that event in February.

Then Jones and Co. won the Strauss Canada Cup after getting back into form and making the shots on a more consistent basis.

“We’ve had a great year from start to finish and we’re probably doing our best curling here in the last couple of months,” said Jones, whose team has captured five titles this season.

On the line in the season-ending event is a berth in the 2010 Olympic trials, $25,000 prize money and Olympic funding for training and competition from Own the Podium 2010.

For Jones and her teammates, that automatic berth into the Trials would be a pretty good cherry to top off the cake.

“The Olympic Trials spot would be great and just end the year off on a positive note,” said Jones, who won the Scotties in 2005 and was a finalist in ‘06.

Law is away working this week, so Colleen Jones is skipping for her team.

Meanwhile, Bernard joined the semifinal group with a5-3 win over Toronto’s Sherry Middaugh after scoring a pair in the eighth end with the hammer.

The women’s final will be on CBC.

PS: That’s 9pm CST on CBC

Source: Calgary Sun

Last Updated: Sunday, April 8, 2007 | 4:15 PM ET
CBC Sports

Canada’s Glenn Howard captured his first world curling championship as a skip with an 8-3 trouncing of Germany’s Andy Kapp in eight ends in Sunday’s gold-medal game in Edmonton.

The win by Howard and his Coldwater, Ont., rink of third Richard Hart, second Brent Laing and lead Craig Savill gave Canada its 30th men’s world title, and the first since Randy Ferbey’s 2005 victory.

....

Midway through Sunday’s final, officials announced a total attendance figure of 184,973 for the week-long tournament — including 10,082 for the final — breaking the previous record set in 2003 in Winnipeg.

MORE AT CBC

Last Updated: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | 12:40 PM ET
CBC News

Jamie Korab said he was surprised when he was kicked off the Olympic gold-medal curling team, one year after the rink won gold at the 2006 Olympic games in Torino, Italy.

Korab, former lead, says he had no idea it was coming until skip Brad Gushue told him the news during a team meeting April 4.

At the time, Gushue told the St. John’s Telegram that the decision to drop his longtime teammate had been discussed over the last couple of weeks and had nothing to do with Korab’s performance.

“The team chemistry was not there, not the way it has been in the past,” Gushue said of the decision.

Korab said he felt the chemistry hadn’t changed.

Korab said the only explanation he can come up with dates back to an exchange of words he had with Gushue after a match in British Columbia, noting the exchange marked the only time he had ever spoken back to Gushue.

Jamie Korab said he was surprised when he was kicked off the Olympic gold-medal curling team, one year after the rink won gold at the 2006 Olympic games in Torino, Italy.

Korab, former lead, says he had no idea it was coming until skip Brad Gushue told him the news during a team meeting April 4.

At the time, Gushue told the St. John’s Telegram that the decision to drop his longtime teammate had been discussed over the last couple of weeks and had nothing to do with Korab’s performance.

“The team chemistry was not there, not the way it has been in the past,” Gushue said of the decision.

Korab said he felt the chemistry hadn’t changed.

Korab said the only explanation he can come up with dates back to an exchange of words he had with Gushue after a match in British Columbia, noting the exchange marked the only time he had ever spoken back to Gushue.

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“I didn’t raise my voice, I didn’t get in his face. He just basically said to me, ‘Guys we can’t give up on those,’ and I turned it right back around on him and said ‘Well Brad, it looked like you gave up on it.’”

Korab said Gushue responded negatively to his comment.

Korab says he’s looking for an opportunity to join another curling team.

The latest move leaves only Gushue and third Mark Nichols remaining from the Olympian rink.

Gushue’s second in Torino, Russ Howard, lives in New Brunswick and hasn’t curled for the St. John’s-based team this year.

The other member of the original squad, second Mike Adam, who was relegated to fifth in Torino, was let go just before Christmas after Chris Schille was brought in from Alberta.

SOURCE: CBC News