By Aadi Nair
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Canada curler Marc Kennedy said on Saturday he regretted using an expletive during a heated conversation with Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson during a round-robin game at the Winter Olympics, but added that he had nothing to apologise for after being accused of cheating.
Tensions boiled over on Friday when Brad Jacobs’s Canada beat Sweden 8-6, with Niklas Edin’s rink alleging their opponents were double touching the stone during the contest.
After Sweden and Canada asked officials to keep an eye on their opponents’ deliveries early on, there was a heated exchange between the teams’ thirds, Kennedy and Eriksson, towards the end of the game.
Eriksson told Kennedy he would show him a video replay of him touching the stone repeatedly. The Canadian responded with an expletive and was later given a verbal warning by World Curling.
“I probably could have handled it better. But we’re human out there and there’s a lot of emotions. I’m not going to apologise for defending my teammates and standing up for myself,” Kennedy told reporters.
“My whole life I’ve been like that if my integrity has been questioned. I’ve curled my whole life, never once with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating. So when it gets attacked, I get my back up and get a little bit aggressive.
“I could have handled it better. No question. There’s young curlers all over Canada that look up to me and my team. I pride myself on making them proud. That’s the part that I regret a little bit… Probably the language, I could have done without that.”
‘WE’LL MAKE ADJUSTMENTS’
Earlier on Saturday, World Curling said it would have officials monitoring for rule violations during the rest of the competition.
Swedish media on Friday released videos and images of 2010 Olympic champion Kennedy appearing to touch a stone while it was crossing the hog line.
Kennedy said he had not seen a replay of the incident, adding that he and the Canadian team would make adjustments to their delivery if needed.
“I know there’s hog line officials now all the time. We’ll make sure it’s not happening and we’ll go from there,” he said.
“I’ve never even known that to be a concern before. It’s never ever come up in conversation.
“And if somebody said , ‘hey, do you double touch all the time’? I honestly, in that split second of a moment, I couldn’t even tell you if I do or not.”
‘PRE-MEDITATED AND PLANNED’
Swedish broadcaster SVT said it had captured the footage of Kennedy touching the stone by moving a camera into the stands to film the hog line after Sweden first complained about a violation early in the game.
Canada coach Paul Webster alleged that the incident was “premeditated and planned”.
“We’ve got a lot of great friends in CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and if I needed something on television because we felt we were wronged, I think I could get it on in about 32 minutes,” he added.
“So they have the support of their national television too.”
Eriksson said he and the Sweden team had made the decision to call out their opponents only after seeing a violation during the game, adding that they had attempted to flag prior incidents in the past to no avail.
Asked if it was pre-meditated, he said: “No, no, no, no.
“We want to play a fair and square game, like follow the rules.
“And if we see something that’s not following the rules, we tell the opponents or the official. This time we did both and hopefully we get a good reaction out of it.”
Eriksson said Swedish media had shown him the video of the incident when he entered the mixed zone after the game.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair; editing by Clare Fallon)
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