Equipment malfunction causes controversy
Issue with measurement system could have effect on matches and standings
There GANGNUENG, SOUTH KOREA was significant controversy before the game even began and it carried on after, but there was no way Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris were going to let it get into their heads during the contest.
Lawes and Morris improved to 4-1 at the Olympic mixed doubles curling tournament with a dominant 7-2 win over the defending world champions from Switzerland.
The Canadians were precise, which is something that couldn’t be said about the equipment used to measure pre-game last-stone draws to the button. The draws are used to determine who gets hammer in the first end of the game.
The laser device used on the Canada-Switzerland sheet malfunctioned, causing Lawes, Morris, coach Jeff Stoughton and team leader Paul Webster to question the validity of the results.
The last stone draws (LSD) thrown by every player before each game are also counted cumulatively and can be used as tiebreakers in the event several teams are tied for fourth place after the round robin.
If three teams are tied, the one with the worst cumulative LSD score will be eliminated. The Canadians were speaking on behalf of all the teams in the field in their discussions with the officials.
“What’s unfortunate is LSD can potentially cause you to be eliminated, so it’s vital that they get everything right,” Morris said. “That’s what we’re pushing for. All the results need to be valid and fair for every team.”
Having the hammer in the first end is a major advantage and the last stone draws before the game have become an integral part of the game.
There’s concern among curlers that none of the results from the tournament, which started Thursday, are valid.
“They’ve changed the process and with the new process you pretty much need a master’s degree in calculus to figure out some of these totals,” Morris said. “It’s prone to more error. They ’re trying to get it so precise, but at the same time it’s complicated and sometimes you get errors like this.”
The equipment malfunction was discovered after Morris threw his LSD, so the officials stopped players on all sheets from shooting. The second shooters had to wait more than five minutes and all of them had poor shots.
“They got frozen out,” Stoughton said. “It’s not what we want to see just because of how important that LSD can be.”
Canada got the hammer in the first end against Switzerland, but gave up a steal of one when Lawes’ final draw wrecked on a guard.
She rebounded nicely in the second end and, after Morris set things up beautifully for Canada to lie three, Lawes made a hit-androll — barely — with her last rock to score four.
Canada forced the Swiss to take one in the third and got the hammer back, using it to hit and stick for one in the fourth for a 5-2 lead at the break.
Lawes made such a good shot with her last in the fifth end — a draw to the button behind cover — that the Swiss chose to simply throw away their last rock and give up a steal of one. Canada stole one more in the sixth and the Swiss players shook hands. It was the third straight game in which Canada won handily without having to play all eight ends.
After the game, there was little celebrating, as the Canadians stayed out on the ice to try to hammer out the controversy.
“They’re going to go back and re-verify because they have saved all the numbers and they’ll redo the calculations,” Stoughton said. “We want to make sure that they are right and we still don’t think that they are quite right.”
Morris is not a fan of the system and suggested they go back to using measuring tape. “It’s one thing if it’s at a bonspiel back home, but when it’s at the Olympics and (the) country ’s medal chances are on the line, you’d hate to see an error like that come into play. We have faith that they’re going to make a right decision for the fairness of all the teams.”