From the Games - Brant Hilton

Before coming to China I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was I to believe that culture over here were like scenes from the Rush Hour movies and other movies placed in a Chinese setting? I was content on having my own image of China and it certainly wasn’t what I had pictured. 

We arrived on the campus grounds late on Tuesday night (Feb. 17) and immediately had to go through security (which involved a metal detector). After doing that, we walked by military guards, two of which were carrying machine guns. That’s the one crazy thing about this place, there are military personnel everywhere, and most of what they do consists of standing still for twenty four hours a day. 

Eating was certainly a question mark coming here and the adventure of the Chinese cuisine at the Athlete’s Dining Hall hasn’t disappointed. Most breakfast meals consist of bread, pasta, beef, rice and French fries. Dinner seems to be a little more western as they serve chicken cutlets, fish, beef and a variety of other pasta dishes. The real treat about eating here is that they don’t seem to change the food up very much so most days we’re stuck with the same food we’ve had since we arrived.   

Since arriving here over a week ago, a goal of many players has been to find clothing stores with great deals. And even though the city of Harbin is populated with over 7 million people, these markets aren’t hard to find. On one of our days off, a few teammates and I shopped in downtown Harbin looking for these stores. It wasn’t until we were curious about a strange looking stairwell that led beneath the ground that we found what we were looking for. This market was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. What seemed to measure at least a mile long, small clothing stores filled the area. Even flat screen televisions hung from the ceiling above. What seemed to be an adventure finding the place, we were surprised to find out the real adventure started when we tried purchasing items. Because no one that worked in the stores spoke any English, many hand gestures were used to communicate. Needless to say, after a couple hours of walking the area, not many items were bought.

The hockey experience here has certainly been something I’ll always remember. I wasn’t too sure what to expect when arriving at the arena for the first time but when I got inside I was pleasantly surprised. We were led to our dressing room which turned out to be the nicest room in the building. The arena itself looks to be the size of many junior rinks at home. The arena, which seems fairly new, seats about three to four thousand people and has a score clock that’s extremely large at one end of the wall. Our first game of the tournament was extremely exciting, and as luck would have it, our opponents were the host team China. I’m not sure many people knew what to expect with the way the crowd would react to certain plays but their reactions were very different from reactions back home. Cheering seemed to be mandatory for the crowd because they did it most of the game. Every time Team China would touch the puck the crowd would cheer, and if they were lucky enough to carry the puck up ice untouched, the cheers would get louder and louder. I remember one time in the game where Team China had a five on three early in the third period. The crowd was delighted when Team China had numerous scoring chances. I couldn’t image how loud the crowd would’ve got if Team China would’ve scored. Even when we scored the crowd politely cheered and softly clapped their hands. 

After beating both China and Great Britain easily, we had our first difficult test against the Czech Republic this afternoon. After having a sluggish start, and being bailed out by our goaltender multiple times, we caught our stride in the second and third periods, winning the game 3-1 and being guaranteed a spot in the semi finals. Our round robin schedule ends with Kazakhstan, who will probably be our biggest challenge to date.

Brant Hilton - Team Canada Mens Hockey 

WCURL Looks to Sweep Round-Robin

Sandbagger’ is a term more often found on the golf course than on a curling sheet, but Hollie Nicol and the rest of Team Canada’s womens curling team may be accused of slow-playing the competition at the 24^th Winter Universiade.

 

Coming into the event, Canadian head coach Jennifer Ferris emphatically identified Canada as nothing more than a dark horse with an outside shot at a medal.

 

However, sporting an unblemished record through eight draws of the round-robin, Canada has proven itself to be a far more credible threat than any of the pre-competition chatter seems to have indicated they might be.

 

With an early morning win over world championship silver medalist Bingyu Wang of China, Nicol and the rest of the Laurier four clinched top spot in the round-robin , and guaranteed their place in Thursday’s semifinal round.

 

So – one game away from running the table in the round robin, are the girls still nothing more that an outside medal hope? Well, that seems to depend on who you ask.

 

“We don’t have any international experience, unlike some of the teams here,” explained Nicol. “The Russians and the Chinese have both played at the Worlds, and they’ve got Olympic experience. We really didn’t know what to expect when we got here. Sure, we might do well in Canada at the university ranks, but we had no idea what we’d be capable of when we had to play at this level. There are a number of very good teams here, and we didn’t know if we should be considered among them.”

 

Nicol’s rink survived their toughest competition day on Monday. Not only did they significantly  hinder Great Britain’s playoff aspirations – handing the Brits their fourth loss on the week – but they also dropped China’s curling heroes 7-6 in a game that was much more lop-sided than the score indicates.

 

“I thought we played really well against the Chinese,” explained Nicol. “They got their two in the last end , but we were really driving the ends. The whole team played well in front of me, and made things pretty simple. They’re the ones playing at home in front of their fans and with all the pressure that goes along with it. The coaches have done a good job deflecting any expectations for our team trying to play up the fact that we were the underdogs coming in.”

 

And while the victory over the consensus pre-tournament favourite, the playoff berth and the chance to go undefeated through the round robin might suggest otherwise, some in the Canadian camp are still reluctant to upgrade the likelihood of success for the girls. 

 

“I still think that China is the team to beat,” Ferris reiterated. “They’re the ones that have all that international experience. They‘re the number one team in their country, and we’re somewhere around 30^th coming out of Canada. We’ve been saying all week that we’re a good team, facing some great teams, and I still think that’s the case.”

 

All that stands in the way of perfection in the round robin is an afternoon encounter with Sarka Doudova of the Czech Republic.

 

“I think it would be really good for our confidence,” said Nicol. “Coming into the game, our plan was to keep improving every single game. We haven’t played too badly throught the week, but I think our best games are still ahead of us. We want to finish strong so that we’re going into the semifinals on a bit of a roll.”

Seen and 'Herd'

University of Manitoba players Rick Wood and Stephane Lenoski.

Get it? Bison players? The Herd? See...it's funny, because the Bisons call themselves 'The Herd".  

Never mind - I'm too tired to explain it any further. 

More TC Photos

Short Track Speed Skating

Canada at a Glance - day 6

What Canada Did on Monday, February 23 at the 2009 Winter Universiade

BIATHLON

Canada’s biathletes did not compete on Day 6 of the games.  The next competition for the biathletes is scheduled to take place Tuesday with the men competing in the 10K sprint event and the women competing in the 7.5K sprint event.

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

Finishing 34^th, Mississauga, ON athlete Alana Thomas posted Canada’s result as the female cross -country skiers competed in the 5K pursuit event.

Thomas finished the sprint event in a time of 34:09.9 – six spots better than St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, QC skier Alexia Pichard-Jolicoeur’s time of 34:41.0

Anna Crawford of Lake George, NY finished in 43^rd spot with a time of 35:18.0, while Peterborough, ON skier Mary Thompson finished one spot back in 44^th, positng a race time of 35:50.7.

The men competed in the 7.5K pursuit event with Gavin Hamilton posting Canada’s best result – finishing 29^th in a time of 43:06.4. Ed McCarthy finished 47^th in a time of 44:44.1 with Calgary’s Carl Steudler completing the race in 46:08.8 – good for 60^th spot.

MENS CURLING

Skipped by Laurier’s Mike Anderson, Canada’s Men’s curling team dropped their third game in a row on Monday afternoon – falling 7-4 to China in the afternoon draw.  Canada’s record falls to 3-4 and the team sits sixth in the standings. The men play twice on Tuesday - 9:00am against the United States before wrapping up the round robin at 7:00pm against Finland.

WOMENS CURLING

Skipped by Laurier’s Hollie Nicol, Canada’s Women’s curling team won both of their draws on Monday, defeating China 7-6 in the morning draw and downing Great Britain 9-3 in the evening draw. 

Canada sits alone atop the standings boasting a record of 8-0. Having already clinched top spot in the round robin, Canada will play once on Tuesday - 2:00pm against Czech Republic.

MENS HOCKEY

Canada’s Men’s hockey team defeated Czech Republic 3-1 to run their record to 3-0 in the round robin.  Kyle Ross, Reid Jorgensen and Mike Hellyer scored for Canada while Aaron Sorochan stopped 21of 22 Czech shots in the Canadian net. Canada’s (3-0) next opponent will be Kazakhstan (3-0) in a game schedule for Tuesday afternoon at 7:00pm.

WOMENS HOCKEY

Canada’s Women’s Hockey team enjoyed a day off from competition on Monday and will next take to the ice Tuesday afternoon at 3:30pm against Japan.

LONG TRACK SPEED SKATING

The Canadian men did not skate on Monday, and will next take to the ice on Tuesday competing n the 1000-meter event.

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The Canadian women did not skate on Monday, and will next take to the ice on Tuesday competing n the 5000-meter event.

SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING

Monteral’s Guillaume Bastille earned Canada’s first medal at the 24th Winter Universiade, finishing second in the 1000-meter final.

Bastille also medalled for Canada in the men’s 5000-meter relay. Bastille teamed up with Alexander Boisvert-Lacroix, Richard Shoebridge and Tyler Darraugh to finish second behind the Chinese in a time of 7:03.929.

 * * *

Montreal skaters Marie-Andrée Mendes-Campeau, Nita Avrith, Annik Plamondon, and Valerie Lambert combined to win Canada’s third medal of the games – a bronze in the 3000-meter relay event. 

The Canadians completed the relay in a time of 4:32.728, behind teams from China and Korea.

Canada’s combined medal count stands at three – two silver and a bronze.

MCURL drops third straight

Canada's mens curlers lost their third straight game of the round robin, falling 7-4 to China's Fengchun Wang.

Canada's record drops to 3-4, and the team is tied for sixth heading into tomorrow's final day of round robin competition.

Canada will play twice to wrap up the round robin portion of the event, facing the United States (2-5) in the morning draw before meeting Finland (1-6) in the final draw before the playoffs.