Team GB Dragged Into Winter Olympics Curling Row After Rule Break
Great Britain have been dragged into the curling row at the Winter Olympics after the huge controversy involving Sweden and Canada.
Canada prevailed 8-6 in the men's round robin fixture on Friday night but the main talking point was the cheating accusations.
Sweden accused Canada of double touching after release and requested that officials pay close attention. The team's thirds Marc Kennedy and Oskar Eriksson, were involved in a heated exchange.
After being accused of double touch, Kennedy fumed: “I haven’t done it once.You can f**k off.”
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When Eriksson said he would "show you a video where it’s two metres over the hog line", Kennedy replied, “Come on, Oskar. Just f**k off.”
He received a warning over the colourful language he used as officials said that "inappropriate behaviour" would result in additional sanctions.
Further controversy involving Canada ensued on Saturday during their women's group game against Switzerland when the first stone from their skipper Rachel Homan was removed following a similar incident which constituted a rules violation.
In response to the Sweden vs Canada tension, World Curling issued a statement providing "clarification" on the rule regarding player double-touching stones and said "there were no violations recorded" in the period where game umpires were observing the delivery for three ends.
They also said that while players can retouch the handle as many times as they wish before the hog line when delivering a stone, a touch after is a violation and means a stone will be removed.
That is what happened to Homan, with two officials required to move between all four sheets and observe deliveries as best they could starting on Saturday with the afternoon session.
World Curling statement
"Following the situations arising from the Sweden versus Canada game in men’s session four on Friday (13 February) evening, several issues require clarification," the statement wrote.
"Game Umpires are situated at the end of each sheet and physically cannot see every delivery infraction. However, when they are made aware of delivery issues, game umpires are positioned to observe the delivery for three ends.
"During this period of observation in the Friday evening game, there were no violations recorded. When delivering a stone, before the hog line players can retouch the handle as many times as they wish.
"However, touching the handle after the hog line is not allowed and will result in a the stone being removed from play as per Rule R.5 (e) that states: “A stone must be clearly released from the hand before it reaches the hog line at the delivery end. If the player fails to do so, the stone is immediately removed from play by the delivering team.”
On Sunday, Bobby Lammie, representing team GB, was accused of a rules violation by allegedly touching a stone after releasing it.
Revolving umpires penalised Scot Lammie and removed a stone as a result. According The Sun, citing a source, the consensus is that the 29-year-old had accidentally touched the granite with his finger rather than doing so intentionally to gain an advantage.
Both of team GB's curling teams are in action on Monday ahead of the semi-finals which take place at the end of the week alongside the medal matches.
Topics: Olympics
Josh Lawless