Friday, December 7, 2001
Kevin clinches
Martin advances to men's final
By CON GRIWKOWSKY -- Edmonton Sun
REGINA -- When Kevin Martin has his sights set on something, he's pretty hard to stop.
He's proven it before and he has a chance to prove it again.
Martin earned a two-day rest last night when he clinched first place in the Olympic Trials round-robin.
He's done it with style. After stumbling out of the gate at 2-2, Martin and his Edmonton rink won their last five starts to finish with a 7-2 record, good enough to earn the Ottewell skip hammer in Sunday's final.
The only team hotter than Martin right now is Winnipeg's Kerry Burtnyk, who won his sixth straight, a 9-5 decision over Bert Gretzinger of Kelowna, B.C.
Gretzinger and Burtnyk meet again in the first round of the Wild West shootout in tonight's (5:30 p.m.) semifinal after they both finished with 6-3 records.
"It's not complete, but it's close,'' said Martin, the week's top-rated skip. "It's big to finish off strong. Our backs were against the wall pretty early this week. The guys joined together pretty good and we survived it.
"It's just another step we don't have to get through to get to the final.''
TIME TO RECHARGE
Martin is looking forward to a couple of days off - just to catch his breath away from the pressure cooker.
"It's a good thing,'' said Martin, who will get a chance to visit with family. "This has been a hard week. This time off will be fine. It will be well received. It's going to be a tough final, probably going down to last rock. At least we get to be in the last game and we'll see what happens.''
Martin finished out of the medals at Albertville in 1992 and lost the 1997 trials final to Mike Harris.
"We've been that close before and we've been there before,'' said Martin. "I guess it will be two out of three, one way or the other. Either we'll be watching the Olympics or we'll be there. What a pleasure and a privilege it would be if we could go.''
Martin's team turned its performance around after its Game 4 loss to Jeff Stoughton.
"They just killed us,'' said Martin. "We go, holy smokes, we better wake up or we're done. It wakes you up to the calibre of the competition.''
Burtnyk was even more on the ropes than Martin after dropping his first three starts.
"Good isn't good enough here - you have to play great,'' said Burtnyk. "We've been fortunate in these last six games. We've had the breaks when we needed them. When you're playing good, you get the odd break.
"Now we're in the semifinal, which is where we wanted to be. This is step one.''
Burtnyk's battle with cancer has helped him put a different perspective on the game.
"Whether we win, lose or draw this weekend, life will go on,'' said Burtnyk. "The important things in life are still going to be there.''
Gretzinger, at 50 the oldest competitor here, goes into tonight's game after losing three of his last five starts and has to beat teams with a combined 11-game win streak.
"I'm not too worried about that,'' said Gretzinger. "Sure, we've lost three of five, but we haven't lost two in a row. We can definitely play at this. All good things must come to an end. Maybe it will end for Kerry.''
CLUTCH SHOT BY GRETZ
Gretzinger made the best clutch shot of the event earlier in the day when he made a near-impossible angle-raise takeout for two to send contender Russ Howard reeling.
Defending Brier champ Randy Ferbey finished one game out of the playoff hunt after winning twice yesterday, including his last outing. That handed Howard his third straight loss and a trip home.
"We let things get away from us during the week,'' said Ferbey, from the Ottewell. "I'm proud of these guys. We came back and won our last two games. We dug deep and, hopefully, that will keep us going for the rest of the year and during the Brier playdowns. We know this team doesn't quit''
Edmonton's third team, Kevin Park, finished with a 2-7 record after knocking off 2000 World champ Greg McAulay 11-3.
Park holds the dubious record of most trials losses, 15, after finishing 1-8 at Brandon in 1997.
"We could have had two or three more wins,'' said Park. "But things didn't go our way, so that's the way it goes. It's just nice being here, I guess.''
Now, step aside and let the real gunslingers shoot it out.
2002 Games Curling Coverage
