Goliath downs David (Murdoch) in men’s curling marquee matchup

Canada’s curling giant Kevin Martin continued his dominance as Team Canada defeated their international archrival, Great Britain’s David Murdoch 7-6 in men’s curling action at the Vancouver Olympic Centre on Saturday night.

In the tenth and final end, Murdoch, facing two Canadian stones, sailed his last rock too deep, giving Canada two points and their sixth straight win, to remain atop the standings at 6-0.

After allowing Britain to score three in the third, Martin and his team of third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert tightened up defensively and held the current world champs to just three points over the final six ends.

With the win, Martin edged closer to guaranteeing his team a spot in the medal round, with the four teams with the best records moving on to the semi-final medal round, starting Feb. 25.

Canada’s next game is Sunday against Switzerland’s Markus Eggler.

France’s Thomas Dufour found his offensive game late, scoring two in the ninth end and stealing another in the tenth, edging Sweden’s Nicklas Edin 5-4.

The win puts France in a tie with the United States for seventh position, with a 2-4 record, just one game out of medal contention.

Switzerland’s Markus Eggler flexed his offensive muscles once again as he defeated China’s Fengchun Wang 9-5.

Eggler was effective with the hammer, scoring no less than two points in each of his scoring ends, including three points in the fifth end.

Each team in the tournament has played exactly six games to date, with three games remaining before the semi-final.

Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud sits alone in second place with a 5-1 record, suffering their only loss to Team Canada in their first game.

Switzerland’s Eggler is occupying third spot with a 4-2 record.

A trio of teams are currently fighting for fourth spot with 3-3 records, including Sweden’s Edin, Great Britain’s Murdoch and Germany’s Andy Kapp.

About this article

By: Chris G. Ballard
Posted: Feb 21 2010 1:33 am
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Filed under: Winter Games
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