Olympic gold medallist wins Classic in city
Brad Jacobs’ Olympic gold medal is two years in the past. He’s chasing another one two years in the future.
The chase doesn’t get easier, says the Sault Ste. Marie skip, which is why what happened Monday at the Saskatoon Nutana carries some weight. Jacobs doubled Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, the 2014 world champion, 6-3 in the final of the World Curling Tour’s College Clean Restoration Curling Classic.
There’s no ice yet back home, and no practice sessions are possible, but Jacobs’ team gutted out an 8-1 record during the early-season event.
“Because we had that Olympic success, there’s definitely teams out there who get a little more fired up to play us,” said Jacobs, whose team pocketed $14,000 Monday.
“It’s good for us; we expect this next season, and everything leading up to the Olympics, to be extremely difficult — harder than it was before.”
Jacobs’ team endured what he calls a disappointing WCT season in 2015-16; his team placed ninth in money earnings, and went on to a bruising finish at the Brier that saw them go unbeaten in the round-robin, only to lose both the Page playoff game and the semifinal.
Motivation? It’s there, says Jacobs. Lots of it.
“We’ve been through pretty much all the emotions now — the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows,” Jacobs said.
“We’re a year and a half away from the Olympics, and we’re looking forward to doing everything possible to make sure we’re ready for every event, physically, mentally, sticking to the things we can control. And hopefully good things will happen for our team again.
“It’s been,” he added, “a long time since we won a World Curling Tour event. We wanted this one very badly. We gave it everything we had, on every single shot, trying to do everything we could to win.”
Jacobs busted up a 1-1 tie against Ulsrud with a hit for four in the fourth end, which provided all the momentum he needed to cinch his first Classic crown.
Ulsrud reached the final with a 6-5 win over Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher, and Jacobs beat Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 4-3.
Eliminated in the quarter-final were Toronto’s John Epping, Japan’s Yusuke Morozumi, Edmonton’s Charley Thomas and Sweden’s Niklas Edin.