BRIER WINNER IN CAPE BRETON
Newfoundland skip Brad Gushue heads to Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling bonspiel following huge Tim Hortons Brier win
Brad Gushue is in Port Hawkesbury today for a major curling event.
If you don’t think curlers are athletes, Brad Gushue invites you to walk a mile in his smooth-soled shoes.
“I think anybody who doesn’t think that, I’d certainly encourage them to come out and watch a game and see how much physicality there is and how strong each one of the teams are and how physically fit they are,” said the Newfoundland and Labrador skip, whose rink will trade shots with nine of the other top curling teams from around the world in Port Hawkesbury from today until Sunday for the Princess Auto Elite 10 at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre.
And coming off a huge hometown win at last weekend’s Tim Hortons Brier in St. John’s, N.L., Gushue knows all about the physical rigours of the being a “rock star.” The 36-year-old has missed eight events this season due to a hip and groin issue, and lead Geoff Walker, who was nursing an injured shoulder last weekend, won’t be able to compete in Port Hawkesbury (he will be replaced by Tom Sallows). Even third Mark Nichols and second Brett Gallant are “a little bit banged up,” he added.
“It is very, very intense when you sweep as hard as you can for 25 seconds down a sheet of ice,” said Gushue, who happened to be leaving a physiotherapy massage session while speaking to the Cape Breton Post. “Last week we played 13 games in a matter of seven or eight days. It takes a toll — and not only that, we’re playing all season and you’re practising, you’re in the gym training. There’s a lot that goes into being one of the top teams in the world and it does take its toll.”
While today’s curlers are much more conscious of nutrition and fitness, that wasn’t always the case. Gushue likened the transition to what happened in professional golf when Tiger Woods showed that being physically fit could enhance a person’s natural talent.
“When I first started playing on tour, guys would party all night and go out and play at 9 a.m. You don’t see that happening anymore,” he said. “Guys are taking care of themselves,
they’re getting their rest, eating the right things. You just see it in the body types that are out there curling that these guys are in shape. You didn’t see that 15-20 years ago. It’s certainly changed. Just like golf, you see the bodies that those guys have and it’s much different than the ones that were playing back in the ’80s and early ’90s.”
Local curling fans will have a chance to see that evolution first hand when Gushue defends his Elite 10 title against some of the curling world’s best at the fifth of seven Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s events, and the only stop in Atlantic Canada. With a $100,000 purse up for grabs, he’ll be facing stiff competition from Calgary’s Kevin Koe — who was edged out by Gushue last weekend in an epic showdown — as well as Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Niklas Edin of Sweden, Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock, Toronto’s John Epping, Peter de Cruz of Switzerland, Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers and John Morris of Vernon, B.C. Rounding out the field is an Elite 10 Select team of Grand Slam legends, which is skipped by Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton and includes Calgary’s Nolan Thiessen, Jamie Korab of St. John’s and Dave Nedohin of Sherwood Park, Alta.
The Princess Auto Elite 10 will feature a match play format where teams compete to win the most ends per game (rather than total points) by either scoring two or more with the hammer, or stealing at least one without the hammer. This year, Elite 10 points will be counted toward the Rogers Grand Slam Cup, which awards $75,000 to the men’s and women’s teams that accumulated the most bonus points over the course of the season. The winning team of the Princess Auto Elite 10 will also earn a berth in the Humpty’s Champions Cup, the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event that features all of the top champions of the year in one final showdown.
Coming off another milestone in an already-illustrious career, Gushue admitted that getting ready for the Port Hawkesbury event could be a bit of a challenge. Of course, dealing with huge wins is nothing new to Gushue, who skipped Canada to gold at the 2006 Winter
Olympics in Turin, Italy, becoming the first Newfoundlander to win an Olympic gold medal (the province actually ordered all schools to close so everyone could watch as Team Canada beat Finland 10–4, in a dramatic match that included a six-point sixth end). He said although they may still be feeling the high of last weekend’s Brier win, it will be all business with the first draw against Carruthers, who took Gushue to a draw-to-the-button shootout in last year’s final, today at noon.
“It’s something we dealt with after the Olympics and we’re way more experienced now and the Grand Slam of Curling has grown so much,” said Gushue, whose rink will also face the Elite10 Select team tonight at 7:30 p.m. “This is an important event for us. We’re the defending champions, we love playing in Port Hawkesbury — we’ve been there three times, if I’m not mistaken — we love the venue, we love the town. We’re certainly looking forward to it. I truly believe when we get back in the swing of things and get back in competitive mode, those fluids are going to get going again.”