Bernard settles for silver in women’s curling
Written by on February 26th, 2010 in Latest News.
Canada’s Cheryl Bernard, right, and Sweden’s Anette Norberg watch a shot during the gold-medal women’s curling match in Vancouver on Friday. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)
Cheryl Bernard and her Calgary-based rink of Carolyn Darbyshire, Cori Bartel and Susan O’Connor fell one game small of striking gold in Vancouver on Friday.
The Canadians couldn’t knock off the defending champion Swedish rink of Anette Norberg, Eva Lund, Cathrine Lindahl and Anna LeMoine, taking the silver medal in a 7-6 extra end loss.
The second-place end follows the bronze won by Canada’s Shannon Kleibrink and her rink in Turin, Italy, in 2006.
Canada beat the Swedes 6-2 in their round-robin match on Monday, but Bernard said afterward that Norberg’s performance was an aberration, and expected a much more focused and tough game from Sweden in the final.
Bernard got all that and more from the defending champion, who stole her second straight Olympic gold final.
After steals in the sixth and seventh ends place the Canadians on top 6-4 heading into the 10th end, Bernard couldn’t extinguish the Swedish hopes of a repeat gold.
Bernard’s final stone couldn’t knock Norberg’s second last stone out of the house and the Swedes took that break to score the pair and head to the extra end.
As Norberg lined up her last shot in the 11th, the Canadian shot stone was covered by Swedish rock in the four foot. The Swedish skip bumped her own stone to eliminate the Canadian presence in the house and rolled her shooter behind a guard.
Bernard’s attempt at the double came up small, allowing the steal of one, and the gold medal along with it.
