CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The Canadian roller on the heart of a spiraling controversy on the Winter Olympics insisted Saturday he was not a cheat and postulated that his group is perhaps the goal of a “premeditated” assault by Sweden, one in all its largest rivals for the gold medal.
Marc Kennedy acknowledged he “most likely might have dealt with it higher” after launching an expletive-laden outburst towards Swedish roller Oskar Eriksson, who accused him of breaking guidelines by “double-touching” – basically, touching the rock once more after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice – throughout Canada’s 8-6 win in round-robin play late Friday.
Nonetheless, the 44-year-old Kennedy mentioned he didn’t – and has by no means – intentionally taken to the ice “with the intention of getting a bonus by means of dishonest.”
Footage circulating extensively on-line appeared to point out Kennedy breaching curling guidelines by touching the granite stone together with his outstretched finger after he had already launched it. Requested in regards to the footage, Kennedy mentioned: “Sure, I am not even going there. I’ve by no means even recognized that to be a priority earlier than. It is by no means ever come up in dialog.”
“And if any individual mentioned to you, ‘Hey, do you double-touch on a regular basis?’ I actually, in that break up second of a second, I could not even inform you if I do or not,” he mentioned.
He added that he has his personal principle, suggesting the entire thing might need been “premeditated planning to attempt to catch us.”
“They’ve provide you with a plan to catch groups within the act,” Kennedy mentioned.
The saga has rocked the normally sedate world of curling and it includes two groups who play one another commonly exterior the Olympics and are among the many greatest gamers within the recreation.
Kennedy receiving a verbal warning from governing physique World Curling a day after the feisty back-and-forth with the Swedish group when fingers have been pointed and the Canadian participant repeatedly swore. He has not been formally charged with dishonest by World Curling, which doesn’t use video to evaluation recreation play.
The group opted to deploy two officers to observe how gamers launched their stones throughout Saturday’s afternoon session within the males’s competitors. In that session, Canada misplaced 9-5 to Switzerland and Sweden beat China 6-4.
Afterward, Eriksson mentioned he “slept good, I am unsure about him” – in reference to Kennedy – and mentioned he selected that second to name out Kennedy’s alleged rule-breaking as a result of he’d seen it occur up to now. Eriksson mentioned he has instructed officers in two earlier occasions.
“We need to play a fair-and-square recreation, such as you comply with the foundations,” Eriksson mentioned. “And if we see one thing that is not following the foundations, we inform the opponents or the official. This time we did each.”
The allegations stored coming.
Throughout its recreation in opposition to Canada, the Swiss males’s group alerted umpires mid-match to their suspicion {that a} member of the Canadian group was once more double-tapping, Swiss coach Glenn Howard mentioned.
Howard is Canadian, and a well known and highly-acclaimed roller himself.
“My complete profession, you would be like, ‘Ah, that is okay'” if there was a minor infraction, mentioned Howell, who mentioned he did not know what to make of this newest flare-up.
Within the early ends of Friday’s match, Sweden skip Niklas Edin notified officers of their complaints about Kennedy. An official then remained on the hog line – the thick inexperienced line earlier than which curlers should launch the stone – for 3 ends to observe Canada’s curlers and no violations have been recorded, World Curling mentioned Saturday.
The net footage that seems to point out Kennedy double-tapping the stone prompted some curling followers to query how the video was taken and level out that cameras are usually not normally stationed on the hog line.
A staffer for Swedish public broadcaster SVT mentioned the channel had gotten the footage as a result of they’d moved their digicam to the hog line after Sweden raised issues in regards to the double tapping early within the match. The digicam operator stayed there till he was capable of seize Kennedy’s pitch within the eighth finish. Eriksson mentioned Swedish TV had confirmed him that footage.
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