Scotsman.com Sport – Martin awaits the nod to go for Olympic glory again
MIKE HAGGERTY
THE British Olympic Association will unveil the men’s and women’s Olympic curling teams in Glasgow today, with the gold-medal heroine from the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Rhona Martin, hoping to be selected to compete in Turin in eight weeks’ time despite only finishing fifth at last week’s European Championships in Germany.
Martin thrust the sport into an unprecedented spotlight when she and the British women fought back through three sudden-death games to win a nail-biting final in Salt Lake City in front of a record television audience at home. Just a matter of weeks later, Aberdeen’s Jackie Lockhart won the world title with an entirely different quartet of Scottish players.
Since then, the British Curling Association has moved to a squad system in preparation for Turin, with ten men and 11 women involved in the final selection.
Martin was picked as skip of the five-strong team for Germany that included Lockhart but, in finishing fifth, this unit failed to reach the target of a semi-final place set by national coach – and GB selector – Mike Hay. The squad system run by Hay has not been welcomed in all corners of the sport and last week’s marginal failure by the women has added to the intrigue.
The five who are hoping to be given a second chance are Martin, Lockhart, Debbie Knox, a member of Martin’s Olympic-winning team, Kelly Wood, the Scottish champion, and Lynn Cameron, former junior world champion.
Last week’s men’s team, led by Lockerbie’s David Murdoch, featured four of the five who took world silver earlier this year. Unlike the women, they exceeded their target in gaining European bronze medals and were unlucky not to do better, as they chose the semi-final against Norway’s Olympic champions, whom they had beaten earlier in the round-robin, to have their poorest game of the week, losing the chance to repeat their European title win of 2003.
It would be a surprise if this team, of Craig Wilson, Ewan MacDonald, Euan Byers and Warwick Smith, as well as Murdoch, is not selected as a unit again. If so, they will arguably become Britain’s biggest medal hopes in Turin. However, the selectors may feel that they still have to make adjustments to the women’s team as they search for the type of performance that was rarely on display last week.
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Last updated: 22-Dec-05 00:50 GMT
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