By Canadian Press

Gushue back on track, Jones falling behind as curling continues at Beijing Games

Feb 13, 2022 | 6:41 AM

BEIJING — Canada’s curling teams were looking for positive results on Sunday after slow starts put their medal hopes at risk.

Brad Gushue’s men’s team got what they were looking for in a comfortable 10-5 win over American John Shuster, the defending Olympic champion. The women’s squad skipped by Jennifer Jones, however, had another frustrating performance in an 8-4 loss to Switzerland.

For a nation that prides itself on being a curling powerhouse, Canada’s recent Olympic results have not exactly inspired.

The men’s and women’s teams were kept off the podium at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Canada had won a medal in both events every Olympics since 1998, when men’s curling made its return and women’s curling made its debut.

Canada did win mixed doubles gold in Pyeongchang, but failed to repeat in Beijing when a crushing extra-end loss to Italy to end the preliminary round denied the team of John Morris and Rachel Homan a spot in the semifinals.

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That was followed by inauspicious starts from both Gushue and Jones, who were both on two-game losing streaks heading into Sunday’s matchups.

Gushue, the 2006 champion, and his teammates looked refreshed and energized on Sunday, taking a lead with a four-point steal in the second end and cruising from there.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost two in a row,” Gushue said. “We were itching to get back out on the ice and get a win.”

Canada, which improved to 3-2, threw 91 per cent overall to 76 per cent for the Americans.

“They have a huge belief in each other — even after a tough game — that they’re going to come out and play well again,” said Canada alternate Marc Kennedy. “You saw no doubt in them today and that’s what we’re going to have to see.”

Gushue’s squad will look to solidify their spot in the standings Monday against Italy.

Jones, who led Canada to a gold medal in 2014, gave up back-to-back two-point steals before Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni ran her out of rocks in the 10th end. Canada fell to 1-3 while Switzerland improved to 5-0.

Jones will face Russia and Britain on Monday, and needs to win both to get her team back in medal contention.

“It’s super disappointing with this loss,” Jones said. “We’re going to have to go out tomorrow, one game at a time and one shot at a time, and see what happens at the end of the week.”

“There’s never mountains to climb,” she added. “We get to do what we love to do.”

Monobob made its Olympic debut Sunday, and Canadian bobsledder Christine de Bruin put herself in a good position to win a medal. The native of Stony Plain, Alta., was second after the event’s first two heats with a total time of two minutes 10.14 seconds.

De Bruin will need to be near-perfect in Monday’s final two heats to win gold. She trails Kaillie Humphries of the United States by a considerable margin of 1.04 seconds.

“It’s a consistency race,” de Bruin said. “Anything can happen.”

Toronto’s Cynthia Appiah was 10th with a time of 2:11.28.

Humphries raced for Canada at three previous Olympics, winning two gold medals and a bronze in the two-women event. She switched to representing the United States after the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Elsewhere, Erik Read of Canmore, Alta., was the top Canadian in the men’s giant slalom in 13th place, and Canada finished 11th in the men’s 4×10-kilometre cross-country ski relay.

There were a couple of promising medal chances for Canada’s short-track speedskaters later Sunday in the women’s 3,000-metre relay and men’s 500.

In other action later Sunday, Canada’s men’s hockey team looked to bounce back from a 4-2 loss to the United States in a game against host China.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2022.

The Canadian Press