Saturday, March 13, 2010

Paralympic Games - Draw 1 preview

It would be foolish to say that as goes Draw 1 so goes the tournament, but that may be true for Great Britain. They open against Canada with not only a Torino Final memory to erase, but with a chance to push aside all the skepticism and doubt expressed by those outside their program, myself included, that their radical approach to delivery position can bring success.

A year ago Great Britain appeared in disarray. Their coach put that down to expected and manageable effects of learning a new approach to throwng their stones.

This year Great Britain welcome back Angie Malone at lead, and with Aileen Neilson now settled at fourth stones, skip Michael McCreadie is free to concentrate on calling the game.

Canada will show how well they handle the pressure of the home crowd's expectation that they'll win them all. We'll see whether Jim Armstrong's series of physical misfortunes has affected his play.

A win for Great Britain will mean that not only can Canada be beaten, but also that their experiment is working. Canada can afford a loss, though I don't expect them to lose. Scotland need a win, or at minimum a very tight game, to settle their nerves and build their confidence.

Other games in the opening draw: Korea-USA, Sweden-Switzerland and Germany-Norway.

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