Friday, December 7, 2001
Morris' Olympic bid over
By TODD SAELHOF -- Ottawa Sun
John Morris faced a couple of Canada's finest curlers yesterday.
World champions, to boot.
But the young Ottawa skip needed more than simply two fine performances to survive the last two round-robin draws at the 2001 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Regina. He needed a golden effort -- Olympian, that is -- to beat both Jeff Stoughton and Kevin Martin for a chance to remain in the hunt for the Salt Lake City Olympics berth for Canada.
He got it against Stoughton in the morning draw but couldn't repeat against Martin in the evening, leaving the two-time world junior men's champion short of a playoff spot at the week-long tournament.
Those remaining in the hunt for the Olympic berth are Martin, who finished on top of the men's standings with a 7-2 record, Winnipeg's Kerry Burtnyk and B.C.'s Bert Gretzinger. Burtnyk (6-3) and Gretzinger (6-3) will play in today's semi-final (7:30 p.m., TSN), with the winner to play Martin in Sunday's final (1 p.m. TSN).
On the women's side, B.C.'s Kelley Law earned a bye to tomorrow's final (1 p.m., TSN) with an 8-3 win over B.C.'s Sherry Fraser.
"I've seen teams win it with a bye. I've seen teams lose it with a bye," Law said.
Law, at 7-2, topped the field, while Saskatchewan's Sherry Anderson and Colleen Jones of Halifax both finished at 6-3 to claim spots in today's semi-final (2:30 p.m., TSN).
Morris and his rink of third Joseph Frans of Guelph, second Craig Savill of Kanata and lead Brent Laing of Stayner finished the round robin at 5-4, losing last night's late draw to Martin 9-8. A hit-and-stick for three by Martin in the fifth end proved the turning point. But the Ottawa Curling Club skip will long remember his 10th-end loss to New Brunswick's Russ Howard in Monday's draw that was the sore point of the week.
Earlier yesterday, Morris beat Stoughton 6-2 in what Morris termed "a quarter-final." The Ottawa rink soundly outcurled Stoughton, with Morris himself finishing with 79% efficiency against Stoughton's own 60%. -- with files from CP
2002 Games Curling Coverage
