Hog-line sensors malfunction at Scotties
The honour system is in play at the Canadian women's curling championship when it comes to hog-line violations.
A curler delivering a stone must release it before it reaches the hog line. Sensors in each stone's handle determine whether the rock is released in time thanks to a magnetic strip embedded in the ice under the hog line.
A green light in the handle indicates a legal delivery, while a red light indicates a violation and the stone gets pulled.
But handle sensors were disabled at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary after five hog-line violations in the second draw.
“Some spots were prematurely lighting up,” said Curling Canada's chief ice technician Greg Ewasko. “We deemed it's not really fair to the curlers.”
Ewasko's initial theory that magnets in the arena floor to affix short-track speedskating pylons might be the culprit has been replaced by the possibility that rebar in the floor contains ferrous metal with magnetic properties that interfere with the handle sensor and the ice magnet.
The handles have been replaced in Calgary. They won't be used at the Canadian men's championship March 1-10 in Regina, Ewasko said.
Ewasko is working with a developer on handles that can do a lot more than detect hogline violations. Spitting out split times and rock positioning digitally is in the works, Ewasko said.
“The plan is you're going to be sitting up on the media bench and you'll have a screen telling you how fast Rachel Homan delivered that rock and did she go down the same line?” he said.
Handle sensors malfunctioned at both the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, as well as the 2022 women's world championship in Prince George, B.C. The honour system was instituted in both cases.