Amazing run ends with silver
Mike Christmann’s dream season finally came to an end, but the five-pin bowler from Medicine Hat added some more magical moments along the way.
At the Canadian Open in Sudbury, Ont., Christmann got all the way to the final, narrowly losing to Quebec’s Guillaume Charbonneau Saturday.
“It’s been a crazy ride, for sure,” said Christmann upon arriving back home Monday. “I had no idea what to expect. It was special.”
Having not bowled competitively in nearly a decade, Christmann barely submitted the entry form in time but wound up winning a southern Alberta title back in January.
Then it was provincials, where he cruised to first place through 21 games, important for a stepladder playoff in which the top seed waits for the other finalists to play off, then would have to lose twice not to claim the title. He didn’t need the second chance.
The format was the same at nationals, and Christmann didn’t play scared of the competition. He was more worried about his back.
“The scariest part was three days before going out there I tweaked my back, I could barely move,” he said. “Do I go out there and lay on the lane and throw the ball? But I did some stretching, applied some heat, took some Tylenol. It was better, fortunately.
“I kind of went back and forth between telling myself, how often does a person get out here and this is my first time and I really want to make it count. You mix that with I’ve got nothing to lose really.”
Second after seven games and fifth through 14, Christmann finished fourth in the round robin. That meant he’d face the fifthplace finisher, with the winner to play the third-place finisher, and so on.
He edge Newfoundland’s Mike Maloney 277-256, then rolled his best game of the entire week, a 358 to beat Manitoba’s Ian Sylvester. In the semifinal against No. 2 seed and defending champion Matt Innis of Ontario, Christmann held on for a 241-207 victory.
Just getting to the final in those circumstances was amazing enough. Then he beat Charbonneau 299-292, throwing a final-frame strike to do it.
“I had to get a mark and a pretty good count in my 10th frame to beat him. I got the chop-off, needed the three-two on the right side. It’s not always my best spare, but this time I got the spare and came back with a strike and won by seven pins.”
But the top seed had that second chance, and Christman finally had an average game in the tense finale. It still came down to the final frame.
He might’ve been away from the competitive lanes for a while, but now Christmann’s already looking forward to next year, hoping to upgrade his silver medal.
“I’m going for the gold, man, that’s my motivation (for next year),” he said, adding Medicine Hat’s Panoraman Lanes will host the southern Alberta finals.