// BONUS ONLINE-ONLY COVERAGE Round robin standings,
2014 World Men’s Curling Championship: Beijing, China
Norway (Tomas Ulsrud) Canada (Kevin Koe)
Switzerland (Peter de Cruz) Sweden (Oskar Erickson) Japan (Yusuke Morozumi) China (Rui Liu)
Czech Republic (Jiri Snitil) Germany (Johnny Jahr)
Scotland (Ewan MacDonald) USA (Pete Fenson)
Russia (Alexey Stukalskiy) Denmark (Rasmus Stjerne)
10-1 8-3 7-4
7-4* 7-4 6-5 6-5 5-6 3-8 3-8 2-9 2-9
*Sweden defeated Japan, 8-7, in a tiebreaker game to advance to the playoffs
Colin Campbell Memorial Sportsmanship recipient: Ewan MacDonald, Scotland
USA game results:
Eight-time national champion Pete Fenson delivers a stone while Shawn Rojeski (leſt) and Joe Polo prepare to sweep during round robin play at the 2014 World Men’s Championship in Beijing, China. Photo courtesy of the World Curling Federation
American men finish 10th at world championship in Beijing
By Terry Kolesar, Editor
U.S. men envisioned when they arrived in China to start the 2014 World Men’s Curling Champi- onship presented by Ford of Canada. Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.) and his team of
S
Shawn Rojeski (Chisholm, Minn.), Joe Polo (Du- luth, Minn.), Ryan Brunt (Portage, Wis.), and Jared Zezel (Hibbing, Minn.) lost to Switzer- land’s Peter de Cruz rink, 6-5, in the round robin finale on April 3 to wrap up the championship with a 3-8 record at the Beijing Capital Gymna- sium in Beijing. “Without picking out one particular compo-
nent of why things didn’t go well, we started the season prepping the year for great success. We didn’t have a great Tour season but we were prep- ping hard and getting ready for the Trials. We played good at the Trials and things kind of went stale and we lost. We just kept our heads down and kept going,” Fenson said. “We didn’t really waiver. We win the Nationals, we’re playing great there, and we were excited about coming in here and having a shot at this thing again. We worked so hard to get back and I don’t feel like it is ending
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eason-long preparation with countless numbers of rocks thrown did not culmi- nate in the ending Pete Fenson and the
where we want it.” Te team’s final record put the Americans in place in the field of 12 teams.
10th “We were in a good spot mentally and physi-
cally throwing the rock and get here and struggle the first day. I don’t want to call it a fluke, but we lose a tough one (to Denmark) and then we play Oskar (Eriksson of Sweden) and they played great so we’re starting off 0-2,” Fenson said about the team’s rough start to the tournament. “We tried hard to figure out the ice and what we could do to concentrate on the positives. We tried to play every game as well as we could and hang as many w’s on the board as we can and hope it’s enough at the end. We had three or four last-rock games that we lost, maybe more than that.” Te win over the U.S. placed Switzerland (7-
4) directly into the Page 3-4 playoff against Swe- den’s Oskar Erickson rink, which defeated Japan in a tiebreaker game for the fourth playoff spot. Norway’s Tomas Ulsrud rink met Canada’s Kevin Koe in the Page 1-2 game with the Norwe- gians prevailing, 3-2. Sweden defeated Switzer- land, 5-2, to set up the semifinal matchup with Canada. Sweden then advanced to the final with a 10-8 defeat of Koe’s rink. Te gold-medal game lacked excitement, however, as Norway disman-
Czech Republic 9, USA 7 Sweden 8, USA 6 USA 6, Russia 5 Japan 9, USA 5 USA 8, Germany 3 Scotland 8, USA 6 Canada 7, USA 4 China 8, USA 4 USA 6, Denmark 5 Norway 6, USA 4 Switzerland 8, USA 5
Page playoffs, 1-2: Canada 000 100 001 0 – 2 *Norway 100 000 100 1 – 3
Page playoffs, 3-4: Sweden 020 200 001 x – 5 *Switzerland 100 000 100 x – 2
Semifinal: Sweden 040 103 002 0 – 10 *Canada 201 010 210 1 – 8
Bronze medal: Switzerland 110 102 002 0 – 7 *Canada 002 010 010 1 – 5
Gold medal: Sweden 000 010 20x x – 3 *Norway 112 101 02x x – 8 *last rock in first end
tled Sweden, 8-3, aſter jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead that the young Swedish rink could not overcome. Switzerland bounced back from the loss in the Page 3-4 game to defeat Canada, 7-5, for the bronze medal. Te 2015 Ford World Men’s Curling Cham-
pionship will take place March 28-April 5 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. n
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