Pages

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Wheels on Wednesday

With so much going on, I've been remiss in not tidying up the Paralympics wheelchair curling from Vancouver. You will no doubt know that the gold medals went to Canada’s Jim Armstrong and his team who held off a late rally from Korea’s Haksung Kim in front of just under 5,000 cheering fans.

Sweden beat USA for the bronze, despite not having their fourth player. I'll just state the official position from the WCF press release: "Yesterday during a Press Conference the Swedish Chef de Mission Hans Safstrom stated that Glenn Ikonen the fourth player on the Swedish Team who committed a possible anti-doping rule violation would not be able to compete for two years. At the request of the Swedish Paralympic Committee a hearing was held last evening with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in Whistler. This hearing was adjourned to enable the athlete to provide further information. His provisional suspension/disqualification remains in place until further notice."

Team GB finished with a record of just three wins from their nine games. However, there were memorable times off the ice.

Michael McCreadie carried the flag for Team GB at the Opening Ceremony.

HRH Prince Edward visited with the team and was supportive and knowledgeable. He is a patron of the British Paralympics Association.

Every athlete received a personal welcome card from local schoolchildren. One asked if the team would visit and they organised this on their day off! L-R: Tom Killin, Aileen Neilson, Angie Malone, Jim Sellar and Michael McCreadie.

What now for the team and their coach? It is interesting to read Tom Pendreigh's thoughts in this article.

Photos courtesy of Tom Pendreigh