Winning one for Dave
By PAUL FRIESEN -- Winnipeg Sun
He woke up with a slight case of the flu, and for a while it looked like Dave Nedohin was going to throw up all over his World Championship dream.
I mean, when's the last time you've seen our hometown hero put up the kind of numbers he had early in yesterday's gold-medal final?
After four ends against Switzerland, Super Dave was shooting less than 50%, a number so pathetic his skip didn't even want him to know about it.
"He looked up at the scoreboard," Randy Ferbey was saying after the game. "I saw it, and Dave kind of looked and goes, 'What was my percentage?' I go, 'I didn't notice. I missed it.' I didn't want to tell him he'd been that bad."
Now that would have really made him sick.
Who would have thought it: an invisible bug was threatening to ruin what the best curling foursomes in the world couldn't -- Team Canada's run at a second straight world title.
In typical "Aw, shucks," fashion, Nedohin downplayed his little run-in with a virus. Not everyone was convinced, though.
"He was feeling like throwing up there," said lead Marcel Rocque. "After the first end, he really didn't look good, either. I mean, he was pretty pale. How the heck do you curl when you're feeling like that? We just kept telling him, 'Just make it when it counts. Don't worry too much.'
TRANSPLANTED WINNIPEGGER
"That's team, right? Sometimes you're gold, and sometimes you're not. That's why you've got three other guys to help you through it."
Today, Nedohin, Ferbey, Rocque and Scott Pfeifer are all gold. But the three Albertans couldn't help but feel particularly happy for the transplanted Winnipegger.
All year, they'd talked about getting Nedohin back home to go after curling's ultimate prize, the worlds, in the world's curling capital.
On the threshold of glory yesterday, they weren't going to let a queasy stomach get in the way. The way Rocque saw it, they owed Nedohin one, after what he'd done for them.
"He gave us a chance to play in this final game, with his great shot the other day," Rocque said, referring to the dramatic last rock that lifted Canada to a win over Norway in the semifinal. "It was for him."
As it turned out, Nedohin turned his game around, shooting a final 72%.
But it was the other three who kept Team Canada in the game until their finisher found his touch.
And by the time the ninth end rolled around, Nedohin was feeling no pain, particularly when Swiss skip Ralph Stockli extended his hand in what has to be the most loudly-applauded handshake of all time.
"I didn't realize they were quitting after nine," Nedohin said. "When the crowd started erupting, that was just absolutely amazing. This has been a dream season. I don't think that we'll ever be able to equal it. I don't know, maybe somebody will one day. We're going to take the summer and really enjoy it."
It's hard to imagine a team winning more than Ferbey's did this year. To win back-to-back worlds, the first team to do that in three decades, solidifies this as one of the best rinks ever.
Funny, though, how they collected a record $230,000 in earnings, yet the win they treasure above them all didn't yield a red cent.
"Nothing compares to this," Nedohin said. "I don't care how much money it is. Right now, we're at the pinnacle of the sport -- we're the world champions. We won more money than anyone else this year, but nobody's going to remember that five years down the road. But they'll remember who the world champions are."
Nedohin has a great big gold coin around his neck to remind them.
