Canada Takes Gold in Men's Curling

[Appels]

The Golden Gushue

The Canadian crew from St. John's, N.L., routed Finland 10-4 in eight ends in the gold medal match.

PINEROLO, Italy (CP) -- It took a wily veteran and young guns working in concert to produce Canada's first Olympic medal in men's curling.

Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Russ Howard, Jamie Korab and alternate Mike Adam delivered the gold that was just beyond Canada's grasp at the previous two Games with a 10-4 win over Finland's Markku Uusipaavalniemi on Friday.

The curlers, all of them from Newfoundland and Labrador with the exception of Moncton's Howard, are about to see their lives change, just as the lives of Sandra Schmirler and her teammates did after winning gold in 1998.

"The excitement back in Newfoundland is going to be overwhelming," Gushue said. "Our lives our going to be different. Not too different. We have good lives right now."

The Gushue team was unique in its formation. The team of Gushue, Nichols, Korab and Adams won a world junior title in 2001 and was a rising young team on the men's circuit.

But just prior to the Canadian trials in December, they made the gutsy decision to bring two-time world champion Howard, about 25 years their collective senior, on board to give them the shot of experience they felt they needed to win.

It required swallowing of egos as Gushue relinquished shot-calling duties to Howard, but continued to throw fourth stones, and Adam graciously stepped aside into the role of alternate.

Howard, who spent most of his curling career throwing last rocks as skip, was suddenly throwing second stones. Nichols and Korab adjusted to a new man calling the shots.

"Everybody kind of made a little sacrifice," Gushue said. "There were no egos and I think that's why it did work."

Even after the team won the trials and the right to represent Canada at the Olympics, there were questions whether the revamped lineup's success in Halifax was the equivalent of an NHL team shocked into winning the day after its coach is fired.

The St. John's Curling Club foursome was still fine-tuning team chemistry in the preliminary round as Howard, a fiery competitor, was so vocal about his own poor play in one game that his teammates were taken aback and didn't know how to take it.

Nichols was off his game in the preliminary round, but he was a pistol in Wednesday's semifinal and Friday's final after working on his delivery in a practice session earlier in the week. His shotmaking was rated 97 per cent in the final.

"It was like everything was in slow motion," Nichols said. "I could see every shot."
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Say what you will about this streaker, but don't call him chicken. (Getty Images)

His two prime-time double-takeouts in the sixth end against Finland set Canada up for a big end. A miss by Uusipaavalniemi and all of a sudden Gushue was staring at a house full of his own rocks and an Olympic gold medal.

The adrenaline pumping through him caused him to be heavy on a draw to score seven, but the six was quite enough to seal the win.

"That draw, my heart was pounding so much," Gushue said. It was a surreal feeling for the Canadians as they were required to play at least eight of the 10 ends. They had controlled the first five ends for a 4-3 lead.

Gushue couldn't wait to call his mother Maureen, who wasn't able to travel to Italy to watch her 25-year-old son because she is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for bowel cancer.

Gushue called over to Adam halfway through the eighth end to get his cellphone. As Uusipaavalniemi's drew into the house with his final stone, Gushue and Howard embraced and Adams tossed Gushue his phone so he could call his mom.

"I've thought about her every day, every hour since I've been here," Gushue said. "This morning when I got up, it was a tough morning for me, very emotional morning because win or lose I wanted her here.

"Nobody better get in my way when we get to the airport because she's the first person I'm going towards."

Howard turned 50 at these Games and is the oldest Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal at a Winter Games, according to the Canadian Olympic Committee.

He said Canadian men were due to step on top on the Olympic podium after the Kevin Martin and Mike Harris teams won silver in 2002 and 1998 respectively.

"It's easy to gloat after you've won, but Canada's got the most depth and the best depth," Howard said. "We had two silvers and this could have been a silver. Don't take this the wrong way, but I think Canada deserved a gold medal somewhere down the line and I'm just so happy it was us."

Lead Korab couldn't wait to get to return to St. John's on Tuesday for the party he knew would still be going strong.

"I think St. John's is totally going crazy, the schools, the homes, the bars," he said.

Gushue is a native of St. John's, Nichols is from Labrador City, but lives in the Newfoundland capital, Korab is from Harbour Grace, Adams hails from Labrador City, but lives in Wabush. Howard is originally from Midland, Ont., but makes his home in Moncton.

The Olympic gold is the biggest moment in Newfoundland curling since Jack MacDuff won the Brier back in 1976. Gushue's coach Toby McDonald played third on that team and concurred.

"There's no question in the world of curling, winning the gold medal is the biggest thing it could possibly be," McDonald said.

Joan McCusker knows that. She played second for Schmirler's team from Saskatchewan that won gold in 1998 and was here as a television commentator.

McCusker said Newfoundland will embrace the Gushue team as Saskatchewan did her's.

"It's certainly appreciated more in those smaller provinces than other parts of Canada," McCusker said. "The one thing we were shocked by was how the entire province becomes your hometown and they claim you and they will make heroes out of Brad Gushue's entire team for the rest of their lives."

Well, they really showed that Canada can curl (early in the week, I was like wtf? because they sucked.).

[Andy_p]

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Curling is a better game than I thought it would be...