Jones strikes gold at Scotties
Defeats Sweeting 6-5 in final
MOOSE JAW — Jennifer Jones remains curling’s golden girl.
The Manitoba skip defeated Alberta’s Val Sweeting 6-5 in Sunday’s goldmedal final at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts with an open draw to the 12-foot at Mosaic Place.
The victory at the Canadian women’s curling championship came 367 days after Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen won the gold medal in women’s curling at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
“It’s awesome,” Jones said of her victory before 3,992 spectators.
“To come off our Olympic year and to come back and win the Scotties and put the maple leaf back on your back is truly an honour and something I can’t believe we get to do. It’s truly humbling.”
Jones didn’t lose a game en route to claiming the gold medal at the Winter Olympics. She was nearly as dominant at the Scotties, losing only once en route to winning her fifth Canadian women’s championship.
“I think it was just making the big shots when we needed them,” Jones said. “It wasn’t our best game, for sure, but we made eight great shots in the last end and that’s really what won it for us.”
Jones capped her run at the Scotties by beating Sweeting three times. Jones defeated Sweeting 10-5 in the round-robin portion of the championship and 8-7 in Friday’s 1 vs. 2 Page Playoff game.
Jones now advances to the women’s world championship, March 14-22 in Sapporo, Japan.
Jones won the 2005 and 2008 Canadian championships as the skip of Manitoba.
She added titles in 2009 and 2010 as the skip of Team Canada. Her only world title was in 2008.
Sunday’s loss was the second consecutive year in which Sweeting, who was curling with third Lori Olson-Jones, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachelle Brown, came up short in the final.
In the 2014 final, Sweeting was beaten 8-6 by Team Canada’s Rachel Homan. On Sunday, Homan won the bronze medal by beating Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton 7-5.
“I’m really proud of the girls,” Sweeting said. “It was a really great game. Both teams played really good and I’m just so proud of this team. It has been an up-and-down year, but if you told me that that would have been the final, I would have been happy with it.”
Jones jumped on Sweeting quickly, similar to what happened in the first end of Friday’s playoff game. Jones scored four in the first end and hung on for the win. On Sunday, Jones scored two in the first end for a 2-0 lead.
Sweeting bounced back in the second with a hit for two that tied the score 2-2. After blanking the third, Jones hit for one in the fourth and a 2-1 lead. Some hot shooting by Sweeting contributed to a 3-3 tie after five ends. Sweeting played an in-off a Manitoba stone in the 12-foot to score one in the fifth end.
A soft bump by Jones in the sixth end led to a 4-3 lead.
Jones forced Sweeting to score one in the seventh end and settle for a 4-4 tie after executing a fine freeze.
Sweeting rebounded by forcing Jones to draw for one in the eighth end for a 5-4 Manitoba lead.
Jones executed a chip shot with her final stone to lay two in the ninth end. Sweeting was forced to take one to tie the game 5-5 after nine ends.