Carleen Armstrong on wheelchair curling: "It's inspiring."

Carleen Armstrong - 3rd from left, with daughters Jayme and Jody

During the 2009 World Championships I was able to procure access to Team Canada for a group UBC journalism students. The video of their visit is online HERE. It includes a comment from Carleen Armstrong, whose support for her husband and for the sport has been acknowledged in every conversation I have had with Jim.

A video from the 2009 Worlds by Becky Gavigan

Gold Medal Game - Line Scores Below

Semifinal Preview Patience and Process

Canada take on Round Robin leaders Germany in this morning's Semifinal game.  Canada had an impressive win over USA last night, wearing them down with relentless hitting in the early ends and accurate draws that stole a convincing win after seven ends. Canada's skip, Jim Armstrong, shot a remarkable 88%.

Germany did not play well against Canada in a last draw Round Robin loss.  "They lacked focus," said the German coach.  "They had already qualified and they didn't play well."  Germany lost to Sweden in last night's 1-2 game.   Down four in the final end, they had a shot for five but took three. Jens Jager is a very experienced skip playing with his club team.  We will see whether they allow Canada to play the open game that has been a hallmark of Canada's victories.

Canada Coach Joe Rea looked confident this morning.  "Two words," he said.  "Patience and Process," as he headed for practice.

Semifinal Game - Scroll Down For Linescores

Semifinal Game - Canada vs Germany

Sheet B   1   2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  Final

CAN       1   0  0  3  2  0  1  3      10

GER       0   2  1  0  0  1  0  0       4

Canada Relentless In Win; Sweden Advance to Gold Medal Game

Team Canada, shocked by a Norway team fighting relegation in the last round robin draw, held a team meeting and then an afternoon practice at the Richmond CC. By the time they came on the ice they were ready to play.

Coach Joe Rea said about USA before the game; "We know this team, we had our chances last game, and we're not going to change our game plan. We're not making a big thing about this game. It is what it is."

USA Coach Rusty Scheiber, asked for a quote, said, "Tell my wife I miss her!" He added, "USA wll play agressively and come into the rings. We're going to make the Canadian skip make his draws."

I looked like an interesting match-up, with Canada seeking to keep things clean, and USA seeking to mix it up. When the game started, however, both teams chose to draw in and then hit. This was well executed curling on both sides, but played into Canada's hands.

It's tough to out-hit Canada, and with skip Armstrong shooting an incredible 88%, Canada wore USA down. The game started close, but with end after end of precision shooting it was only a matter of time before the less experienced team cracked. When they started to miss their takeouts, Canada poured rocks into the house, and they stole the game away, 9-2 in seven ends.

Gerry Peckham, The CCA's high performance coach, was on hand to see his team win. "We were relentless this evening," he said. "USA played well for four ends, but eventually they had sme misses and we just kept up the pressure."

It was an impressive win, but USA played a very similar game to Korea, the other game that Canada threw over 70% as a team. But regardless of how well USA might have played, it's tough to beat a skip shooting high 80s. A more complicated game may have challenged Canada more, but all credit to the Canadians. They played the rocks they were given and were never in serious difficulty.

Tomorrow morning they take on Germany, who lost 7-6 to Sweden despite staging a late charge and taking 3 in the final end. Swedish skip Jalle Jungnell shot 70%, outstripping Germany's Jens Jaeger by 20 points.

Jaeger is far more experienced than Perez, the USA skip and is less likely to choose to play on Canada's terms. Canada won comforatbly when they faced an already qualified Germany on the last day of round robin play.

I suspect the task will be tougher tomorrow, but if Canada get momentum, and hit their shots early, they are very difficult to beat. Canada have curled wonderfully at times, with unheard of percentages. They have alo allowed their chins to drop when things have not gone well. They are a new unit amd still learning the team dynamics that will mould them into a consistent winning team on the ice.

We'll find out which Team Canada turns up for tomorrow's semi-final at 9 am.

Draw 7 - Ice conditions excellent as curlers adapt to the rocks

First I owe the ice-makers an apology. A couple of days ago I quoted the Scots' coach as saying he was unhappy with the playing conditions. He mentioned difficult ice and new rocks, and made an analogy to challenging Tiger Woods to a putting contest on a ploughed field. That was not a reference to the ice. What I did not make clear was that the ice, while challenging, was in great shape. The ice-makers, who have been extremely cooperative to me, have done an excellent job getting the new surface in shape, and tournament leading Swedish skip Jalle Jungnell said he thought that the ice was excellent.

My apologies to the ice-makers for an unfortunate positioning of a quote. You're doing everyone proud.

Team Germany skip Jens Jaeger outplayed his Chinese counterpart in a very well executed 5-3 win in a game between top four teams. You can replay our commenatry in the post below. China had a chance to win at the end but their skip came up short on a potentially game saving draw on the last shot of the game.

Scotland sat skip Michael McCreadie to give a sore arm a chance to rest, and played an all female back end, probably a first for a major wheelchair curling tournament. Scotland shot a tournament best 59% but still came out on the short end of a 6 -5 decision.

Team USA left it late against Italy. They scored one in the eighth to tie the score at 4, and then watched Italy put a rock on the button and then throw a succession of semi-guards. Skip Perez' first stone had to travel through a narrow port to save the day. He was tight on the guard and Italian skip Tabanelli had a chance to close the port. But his guard again overcurled. Perez' last rock did not miss. He looked up to the ceiling, said a quick prayer, threw a rocket that smashed into the shot stone. Team USA erupted and then remembered that Italy had another rock to throw. When things quieted down, the Italian skip tried the same path but came up short. Team USA fight on with three losses, and play winless Switzerland this evening.

Sweden (4-1) beat faltering defending champions Norway 10 -6 with a four in the seventh end and a steal of two in the eighth.

Torino Gold Medalist Sonja Gaudet makes her first appearance of the tournament at lead, replacing a struggling Chris Sobkowicz.  Join us tonight for live blogging the Canada vs Korea at 6:00 PM Pacific time.

Draw 4 - Scroll Down for Line Scores