Norway Gains Gold as Canada Falters

Canada’s Kevin Martin has a new title: The Best Curler Without a Major Championship.

Norway won the gold medal in Olympic curling Friday, beating favored Canada, 6-5, in a stunner when Martin’s final throw, the last of the tournament, slid past the blue scoring button.

“I heard the sweepers say it was heavy all the way,” said Norway’s captain, Paal Trulsen, meaning Martin’s stone was moving too fast. “I don’t think he misses many of those draws.”

With King Harald of Norway watching from the stands, Trulsen was closer to the mark on his final throw than Martin.

“It was a little deep, about an inch,” Martin said.

The mostly Canadian crowd of 1,500 rose to its feet and cheered as Martin’s rock rumbled down the ice sheet. But it was Trulsen who raised his arms in victory when the Canadian stone kept sliding.

“It was an easy shot to win the game,” Martin said. “It was less than an inch. I’ll be fine. You just hate to miss the last shot.”

Earlier, Switzerland beat Sweden, 7-3, for the bronze medal.

Martin is one of the world’s top skips. He’s president of the World Curling Players Assn. and runs an Edmonton curling academy, a star in a land where curlers have agents and the sport ranks second only to hockey.

“It’s unbelievable,” Norway’s Flemming Davanger said. “They’ve very good. Everybody thought Canada was going to win.”

For years, though, the knock on Martin has been that he doesn’t have an international title.

“I think I’ll make that [last shot] more than I’ll miss it,” Martin said, smiling.

Martin’s team placed second at the World Championships in 1991 and fourth in 1997, and placed fourth when curling was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Albertville Games.

In the bronze-medal match, Sweden’s captain, Peja Lindholm, showed a sense of humor in his ninth-end concession after a medal-clinching toss by Switzerland’s captain, Andreas Schwaller.

Schwaller’s stone in the eighth started a billiards-style combination, knocking the Swedes out of scoring position and eliminating any chance of scoring the two points they were in position to gain. That shot left the center of the house wide open. Since that’s where all the points are scored, Lindholm only needed to put his final rock on target. Lindholm missed. Instead of pulling Sweden within two, Switzerland led decisively, 7-3.

Early in the ninth, Lindholm conceded by holding his rock and sliding down the 146-foot ice sheet. Players are supposed to release the stone after a short slide from the starting hack.

Translation: Game over.