(Dec 18, 2008) -- Canada's Jones, Kennedy new Mixed Doubles teammates
CAMROSE, Canada -- New European curling champion Mirjam Ott and her team from Davos, Switzerland crushed former world champion Debbie McCormick of the United States 10-3 to kick off the sixth Continental Cup of Curling.
Representing Team World, a squad of six international teams challenging six teams from North America, Ott followed Saturday's emphatic win over Sweden's Anette Norberg in the Le Gruyère European Championship final by scoring three points in the first end, stealing two in the second and then adding four points in the fourth to give Team World a quick six points.
"Yes, we are tired," Ott acknowledged.
"But they had some bad rocks, they struggled with the ice and they had the wrong draw weight.
"But it's just one game. Now I play Mixed Doubles (with teammate Ewan MacDonald of Scotland) and then I can rest again."
The first combined team to score 201 points over four days of various curling competitions - including Mixed Doubles, curling's newest World Championship discipline - wins the Continental Cup, and the lion's share of over $88,000 in prize money.
In other matches, Norberg came away with a 4-4 tie against defending world champion Jennifer Jones of Canada (for a split of three points per side) and China's Bingyu Wang scored a 7-3 win over Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon, Canada. After the first draw of competition, Team World leads Team North America 15-3.
In afternoon Mixed Doubles competition, three matches will feature with the most intriguing offering Team World's Thomas Ulsrud of Norway and Cathrine Lindahl of Sweden versus North America's Jones and Marc Kennedy (both from Canada).
In evening action, men's team play gets underway with the highlight match featuring defending world champion Kevin Martin of Canada taking on team World's Fengchun Wang of China, the upstart team which beat Martin at last year's worlds in North Dakota and finished fourth in their debut worlds appearance.
The 3:00pm ET afternoon draw can be viewed live in Canada on TSN and the 9:00pm ET evening draw on TSN2 (with an encore show on TSN at 11:00pm ET).
Live scoring can be found at: www.curling.ca |
