Mens's Curling First Day

Well it was a good day for Canada on day one of Men's curling, USA,...... not so much! In the morning matches Kevin Marting jumped out to a big lead and in the end one with a classic hammer strategy. With a one shot lead (and the hammer) going into the six, Team Canada blanked 6, 7, 8 and then took 1 in 9 to go home with a 2 shot lead. Norway, with hammer, scored 2 in the 10th to tie the match and then in extra ends Kevin Martin played to keep the 4 foot open and then laid down a perfect draw to win.

The US struggled through out their match with Germany losing 7-5.

I attended an exciting round of curling at the Olympic Center in the evening and was treated to Kevin Martin at his best against Germany. The Germans had opportunity after opportunity to put Canada in serious trouble but Martin came up with miracle shots time and again. From triple take-outs to keep Germany to one, to long raise takeouts to turn a 3 point Germany steal into a Canadian 2!!! If Martin curls like this the entire Olympics he'll be unbeatable,.... unfortunately saving yourself from trouble time and time again will usually come back to bite you.

John Shuster's USA team was never really in the evening match with Norway despite having a golden opportunity to win in the extra end. Shuster made some exciting saves to keep it close but in the end bad shot making from lead through to skip let Norway steal one in the 11th to win. John Benton's two free guard tick attempts failed miserably leaving guards in front of the 4 foot and raising one of the Norway stones into the house. Then with a an open four foot to draw to for the win, Shuster through his last rock through the house unswept,..... wait a minutes I've made that exact same miss before myself!!!!!

End result - Canada is undeafeated after day 1,..... USA needs to have a long string of consecutive wins to get into medal contention.

Wes - From Fort Langley, BC