Jordan Chandler rink reaches finals of men’s provincial curling championship
MANITOULIN—Haweater Jordan Chandler and his Sudbury rink made an incredible run to the finals of the 2016 Traveler’s Men’s Provincial Curling Championships this past week in North Bay.
“Not bad,” was Mr. Chandler’s comment as to how well his team did in this past week’s event. Despite losing their final game against the defending Olympic champion Brad Jacobs rink, based out of Sault Ste. Marie, 5-0 in the final played on Sunday, the Chandler rink made quite a run to get to the championship final.
“We wanted to win it; I’m still frustrated today (Tuesday),” said Mr. Chandler. “We went in thinking we could win, and we were prepared to beat the Jacobs team—we’ve beat them before.” His rink was only down 2-0 into the fifth end.
In that fifth end things appeared to be set up for the Chandler rink to grab a deuce but two great shots by Mr. Jacobs led to a steal of one and a 3-0 advantage.
The Chandler rink got off to a quick start in the event, winning their first three games including a 6-2 win over Mattawa’s Patrick Gelinas rink, with a five rock ninth end, and Sudbury’s Robbie Gordon (who has family connections to Manitoulin Island) 6-4. His rink, which also includes Sandy MacEwan second, Lee Toner third and Matt Dumontelle, who throws last rock but is third, won two of its next four games to finish 5-2 in the standings, leading up to the playoffs.
Having qualified for the semi-finals, the Chandler rink defeated Thunder Bay’s Colin Koivula 7-4 on Saturday to reach the finals. They have been to the provincials the last few years, ending up fourth last year and third the year before.
