SWEDEN CAN’T KEEP UP WITH JONES’S RINK
World Women’s Curling Championship ends with stirring shots and blunders in the 11th
After a 10-year wait, Jennifer Jones has finally won her second gold medal at the World Women’s Curling Championship, and she did it in most dramatic fashion.
Team Canada’s skip defeated Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 7-6 in the extra end of a crowning classic on Sunday after ninth and 10th ends that featured incredible shots for twos by both rinks — and missed guesses by both in the 11th.
Hasselborg’s flash with the last rock spelled victory for Canada, and the opportunity for second Jill Officer to go out in a blaze of glory.
“I can’t believe this,” a sobbing Officer, who is stepping back from competitive curling after 23 seasons with Jones, said after the win. “Like, I just can’t believe this ending to my career.”
The victory gave Jones a perfect 14-0 record for the week, matching an unblemished 13-0 by Ottawa’s Rachel Homan in the 2017 world championship.
In six previous world championships, Jones won a gold, a silver and a bronze. The only time she stood at the peak of the podium was in 2008, in Vernon, B.C.
She too was emotional when addressing the media from the ice surface in North Bay, where Sunday’s attendance of 3,919 brought the week’s total to 69,391, a Canadian record for a world championship.
“Just to be world champion, you pinch yourself,” Jones said. “We’ve managed to do it a couple of times and we’ve won the Olympics … we just feel so privileged to be able to do it, and to do it back in Canada.
“Obviously it was our last worlds with Jill, and to end off our career together with a world championship win in this amazing city of North Bay, with these great fans, that means the world to us.”
Replacing Officer next season on the Jones team — which includes lead Dawn McEwen and third Kaitlyn Lawes — will be Calgary’s Jocelyn Peterman. Officer expects to be the team’s alternate at some events.
“We’re not sad because Jill is leaving,” Jones said. “She’s made this decision because it’s the best for her.
“We’re happy for her and we wanted to celebrate her career. What better way to celebrate (than) in front of a sold-out crowd every day in North Bay? It was a ton of fun to do that with her and enjoy the time of the ice one last time.”
Hasselborg, who won gold at the Pyeongchang Olympics last month, was humble in defeat.
“Today, Canada was better,” she said. “It sucks to not win, but I’m still proud.”
Jones delivered a brilliant tiebreaking runback for two in the ninth end, then held on to gain control with a 6-4 lead heading into the last end. But with 15 seconds left on the shot clock, Hasselborg responded with a clutch takeout of a guarded stone that had the perfect line and weight, tying the score again.
“It’s one of my favourite spots on the ice to throw, and I knew it would run straight, so I just told myself to throw it good and good things will happen,” Jones said. “Good things happened. It was a big moment in that game for sure. That two kind of set the tone. If we could hold them to two in 10, we’d have the hammer in the extra, and we did.”
Hasselborg said her two 10thend shots were the “best stones we played.”
Of the 11th that went through the house with game on the line, she added: “It felt perfect … I really thought it was there. Stuff happens.”
The sudden ending caught Officer off guard.
“I was surprised (Hasselborg) missed her last one, actually,” she said. “I fully expected her to make a shot like that.
“I was in a little bit of disbelief that she missed it, and a little bit of relief too.”
Hasselborg, 28, was trying to become only the second female skip to win gold at the Olympics and worlds in the same years. The other was Sweden’s Anette Norberg in 2006.
Her accomplishments to date have nonetheless been impressive.
“You’re going to make me cry when I think about it,” she said. “I’m so proud. We started this team two and a half years ago and now we have medalled in every single even we’ve been to except last worlds, and we won gold at the Olympics. I’m crazy proud of my girls and how they performed.
“The best is yet to come. I’m young, you know.”
We’re happy for her and we wanted to celebrate her career. What better way to celebrate (than) in front of a sold-out crowd every day in North Bay?