“It’s an incredible day for wheelchair curling in Canada. Our team played hard throughout the whole game,” Daw said after the game. “Now we can set our sights on repeating in our home country in 2010.”
“Teamwork got us to gold,” said Canadian coach Joe Rea. After the drama of Thursday’s last-shot win, Canada’s curling fate was once again hanging on the last stone. But this time, it was out of their hands. British skip Frank Duffy missed on his last shot, an attempted takeout of a Canadian stone that would be shot rock. Had Duffy successfully removed the Canadian stone, Britain could have scored as many as four points, which would have sent the gold medal to England. When his shot missed the Canadian stone and removed one of his own before spilling out of the house, Canada stole one to win by three.
“Four years ago, I never thought I’d make it here,” Daw said. “Now I’m a Paralympic gold medallist.”
At Pragelato Plan, Colette Bourgonje (Saskatoon, SK) took home her second bronze medal of these IX Paralympics in the Women’s Sitting 10km Classic Cross Country event. Bourgonje finished in a time of 32:18.8, 1:24.8 behind gold medallist Liudmilla Vauchok of Belarus.
“For me to get on the podium in this group of Ukranians and Russians and Belarus was huge, so I’m very happy to be on the podium,” Bourgonje said. “It was a tough race. I worked it hard. I tried not to go out like a rabbit and I think I paced the race better than I paced any of the other races.” Bourgonje is a five-time Paralympian.
At Sestriere Borgata, home of the Standing Slalom, double-medallist Lauren Woolstencroft (Victoria, BC and Calgary,AB) did not finish her second run after having the second-fastest time in the first run. Her teammate Arly Fogarty (Montreal, QC) did not finish her first run and Matthew Hallat (Coquitlam, BC) finished 31st.
The Canadian Sledge Hockey team goes for gold tonight, as they take on the #1 ranked team from Norway at the Torino Esposizioni. Canada will be looking for revenge after Norway beat them 4-1 earlier this week. Canada currently has 11 medals. The Sledge Hockey team’s medal tonight (gold or silver) will be the 12th of these Paralympic Games.
