NORTH AMERICA SETS POINTS RECORD WINNING CONTINENTAL CUP
ST. ALBERT, Alta. - North America completed its dominant performance at the Financial Group Continental Cup on Sunday, winning a pair of skins games and defeating the World team 298-102 — the most lopsided margin in tournament history.
Calgary's Cheryl Bernard defeated China's Bingyu Wang 42-13 in the women's skins game, while Olympic champion Kevin Martin of Edmonton beat Norway's Thomas Ulsrud 39-16, taking a 35-point skin in the seventh end.
That set a new points record for North America, which had already clinched a tournament win after Saturday's competition. The previous record was 290 points, which North America set at the 2007 event in Medicine Hat, Alta.
Bernard credited the chemistry of the North American team for the lopsided win.
"I think we all really gelled together. The people who'd been (at a Continental Cup) before told those of us who hadn't what we had to do, the important things," Bernard said.
World was close in some of the matches but couldn't seem to get the results.
"They didn't get the chemistry going or the atmosphere wasn't right for them for some reason unlike the last year when they made everything and they beat us up bad," Martin said. "I guess that's the way it goes sometimes."
The North American team received $52,000 for the win, plus a $13,000 bonus for setting the record. The World team earned $26,000.
The men's skins game, a rematch of the men's Olympic final, was tightly contested, with the points carrying over until the seventh end when 35 were up for grabs. Ulsrud just missed a double take out to hand Martin the points — and North America the bonus.
"I was sure I had it," Ulsrud said. "I felt kind of stupid when I turned over to the World bench and called out 'show me the money!" and...whoops it jammed."
Martin thought Ulsrud might have made the shot as well.
"Thomas is a character, he would make that shot more than he misses it – so we were a little lucky," he said.
The women's match started out favourably for Wang, but in the seventh and eighth ends Bernard was able to steal 10 and 12 points to win the game 42-13.
"We tried to win some more points, to get the 55 ... but the last four ends were not very good," Wang said. "I was always trying to find the right weight, and I could feel the ice changing. We made a lot of mistakes."
The 2012 Continental Cup will be held in Langley, B.C.