Proud of Laurier Women's Curling as they go 7-0 in round robin defeating China

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Canadian curlers clinch top spot

Makes me so proud of Laurier Athletes who are representing Canada. Today they beat the World Silver medalists from China before a capacity partisan crowd of China spectators in the Curling venue at the Harbin Ice Skating Gym. Hollie Nichol, Danielle Inglis, Laura Hickey and Hillary McDermott. The two Andrea"s Bevan and Ironside had the day off but helped cheer the Men's Hockey Team on their 3-1 win over the Czech Republic. Today in short track speed skating Canada won 3 medals 2 silver and 1 bronze.

Women's curling continues to run the show as they picked up their seventh win in as many starts. In the first of two draws on the day, Hollie Nicol and the rest of the Laurier four defeated World silver medalist Bingyu Wang 7-6 , clinching a first place in the process.

View official FISU linescores - http://app.harbin2009.org/wu24info/pdf/bh/0511176e.pdf

A pro-Wang crowd tried their best to rally their Chinese curling heroes, and Wang came close to giving the crowd the results the craved, taking two in the ninth end and stealing two more in the tenth. But the Canadians held on for the win, keeping their unblemished record intact.

"Our goals coming in were a top four placing and to give China a good game and we;ve now done both of those things," said Canadian team coach Jennifer Ferris. "I thought today's game was a great mental win, it was a pleasing to see the girls elevate their game in a matchup where they needed to bring a good effort."

The win guarantees Canada a first-place finish in the round robin, and a date with the 4th place finisher in Thursday's semifinal. Canada's playoff opponent is still yet to be determined, with six teams still in the hunt for the final three playoff spots.

"There's nothing we can do to determine the matchup on Thursday," said Ferris. "We've done our part at the top - it's up to the rest of the field to figure it out for the other playoff positions."

Canada's record of 7-0 is two games clear of the 5-2 marks of China and Russia. Canada (7-0) will face Great Britain (4-3) tonight, before wrapping the round-robin portion of the event tomorrow with a game against the Czech Republic.

Canada at a Glance - day 5

BIATHLON

Canada’s biathletes did not compete on Day 5 of the games. The next competition for the biathletes is scheduled to take place Tuesday with the men competing in the 10K sprint event and the women competing in the 7.5K sprint event.

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

Canada’s cross -country skiers did not compete on Day 5 of the games. The next competition for the cross-country skiers is scheduled to take place Monday with the women competing in the 5K pursuit event and the women competing in the 7.5K pursuit event.

MENS CURLING

Skipped by Laurier’s Mike Anderson, Canada’s Men’s curling team dropped both their round robin competition games on Sunday – falling 9-4 to Switzerland in the morning draw and following it up with a 7-5 loss to Korea in the evening draw. Canada’s record falls to 3-3 and the team sits sixth in the standings. The men play once on Monday when they take on China at 2:00pm.

WOMENS CURLING

Skipped by Laurier’s Hollie Nicol, Canada’s Women’s curling team won their only draw on Sunday, defeating Korea 8-6.

Canada sits alone atop the standings boasting a record of 6-0, and will play twice on Monday - 9:00am against China and 7:00pm against Great Britain.

MENS HOCKEY

Canada’s Men’s hockey team did not compete on Day 5 of the games. Canada’s (1-0) next opponent will be Czech Republic (1-1) in a game schedule for Monday afternoon at 12:30pm.

WOMENS HOCKEY

Canada’s Women’s Hockey team defeated China 7-1 to run their record to 4-0. Canada will enjoy a day off from competition on Monday and will next take to the ice Tuesday afternoon at 3:30pm against Japan.

LONG TRACK SPEED SKATING

Canada’s Long Track Speed Skaters competed in the men’s 1500-meter event.

Calgary’s Philippe Riopel posted the team’s best result, finishing with a time of 1:51:35 good for 9th place.

Regina’s Mykola Makowsky finished in 13th spot – posting a time of 1:52.21

Ste-Foy, Quebec’s Vincent Blouin finished 17th overall with a time of 1:52:57, two spots better than Calgary’s Keith Sulzer and his time of with a time of 1:52:94

The Canadian men do not skate on Monday, and will next take to the ice on Tuesday competeing n the 1000-meter event

* * *

No Canadian skaters competed in the 100-meter event on Sunday.

The Canadian women will next skate on Monday as they participate in the 5000-meter event.

SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING

Montreal’s Guillaume Bastille posted Canada’s best results of the 24th Winter Universiade, finishing fourth in the 3000-meter final.

Bastille advanced to the finals with the fourth fastest time in one of two semifinals, and missed out on a medal by three-hundredths of a second.

Montreal’s Alexander Boisvert-Lacroix also advanced to the semifinal round, but finished 7th and did not move on to the finals.

Canada’s mens 5000-meter relay team advanced to the finals by winning their semifinal qualifier. The men skate for gold tomorrow.

* * *

Canada failed to qualify a skater to the finals of the 3000-meter event on Sunday.

Montreal skaters Marie-Andrée Mendes-Campeau, Nita Avrith, Annik Plamondon, and Valerie Lambert all advanced from the preliminary heats.

Lambert and Plamondon were eliminated from medal contention in their semifinal when the overseeing official disqualified the entire eight skater field.

Mendes-Campeau and Avrith completed their race, but were not among the four fastest times.

Already qualified for the final of the 5000-meter relay event, Canada’s women also. skate for gold tomorrow.

Canadian Women move to 4-0

The Canadian women ran their round-robin record to 4-0 with a 7-1 win over the host Chinese on Sunday night.

A crowd of more than 3500 fervent Chinese supporters witnessed their national side hold the Canadians in check for the first two periods, only to have Canada score five third period goals and skate to the convincing margin of victory.

Friday, February 20, 2009

O Canada - Go Canada!!

Alright, lessons learned. The Facebook group idea seems to have fallen flat, largely because I'm getting the notion that none of you want to add me as a friend. That hurts my feelings a bit, but I've moved on.

No worries, as I think this might be a better way to do things.

Athlete blogs, event scores and summaries, great photos.

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