The Province from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 54

The Province Sports Wednesday, April 5, 2000 Bytrlirag nap a itm)ss Law accepts Japan's gift! If 11 4 GLASGOW Kelley Law and her Richmond Winter Club teammates are 12-1 since breaking out of a funk to win the Canadian women's curling championship in February. They have no business sporting a record like that after what happened on Tuesday, but that's curling. Law, Julie Skinner, Georgina Wheatcroft and Diane Nelson came as close to losing to Japan (0-7) as is possible without actually hanging an 'L' on the board. Japan presented Canada with a gift of one point in the 10th as the Canadians won 6-4 to remain tied with Norway atop the standings at 6-1. "We don't get too many of those handed to us," Law said.

"1 didn't think we'd win." Believe it or not, B.C. curled a strong game against the weakest women's team in the 10-nation field at the Ford 2000 World Curling Championships. "We played awesome," said Wheatcroft, the Canadian second from Coquitlam. "But Japan played just great." Facing a Japanese steal of two in the ninth, Law nudged her own stone up to take a 5-4 lead into the 10th end. With skips' rocks to come in the final frame and Canada lying two behind five guards, Law bumped one of her own up to lie three.

JapanT ese skip Yukuri Okazakl, a 22-yearr, old office worker from Hokkaidp, tapped one of her own in return, lie shot. Law, with Wheatcroft and Nelson: sweeping as hard as they could tried another tap-ahead, but it came, up light, leaving Japan lying one witJfl a tight lane to draw through for -a deuce and the win. n3 Inexplicably, no one swept Okaza-ki's final stone as it curled intca Canada rock and pushed it ahead for a Canadian steal and victory. "It was probably either a mistake reading the ice or a blown sweeping call," said Canada coach Elaine Dagg-Jackson, who coached the Japanese team for five years. "(Japan) wanted to show me what they've learned.

They did." ---iw Canada can afford a loss or evtjij two as the round-robin winds dowVh The important thing is winning the two playoff games a semifinal Frfc day and final Saturday. nH Canada dispatched four-time world champ Elisabet Gustafsonf Sweden 7-4 in the morning. TodaM the Law rink meets Scotland which came from four points to beat the U.S. 8-7 in 1 1 ends Tuqsr day night. Thursday, Canada faces Germany (4-3).

Canadian skip gives credit where it's due Stories by Gordon Mclntyre Sports Reporter GLASGOW The Buttery on the Battery doesn't sound like a restaurant where you'd find a fitness devotee, but that's where Bryan Miki chowed down Tuesday night. He didn't choose the venue. The Canadian Curling Association took the Canadian second, his wife Kimi, his teammates and their partners out to celebrate Team Canada's 6-0 standing atop the Ford 2000 World Curling Championships. Much of the focus on the Canadian men's rink has fallen on skip Greg McAulay of Richmond and third Brent Pierce of Burnaby. As it should: The two have curled superbly through playdowns, the Brier and at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow.

But McAulay gives much of the credit for the team's success to Miki, who shot 98 per cent at the Brier. "That's like bowling 300," McAulay said. "Bryan's been amazing." Miki, 30, was stuck with a wayward rock in Canada's only game Tuesday, an iffy 74 win over Scotland. Scottish skip Bob Kelly's light draw in the ninth and McAulay's brilliant freeze that left Kelly with no shot on his final stone of the 10th made the final score far more lopsided than the game was. "I'm not going to use that rock as an excuse," said Miki, who leads all seconds with an 83 per cent shooting percentage.

"We struggled. We just didn't have our A-game." Canadian lead Jody Sveistrup CP Canadian skip Kelley Law yells during her rink's 7-3 win against Sweden on Tuesday at the worlds in Glasgow. onto a Scottish stone and leav-ing Kelly no chance. "We just pounded that one," Miki said. i-, had a bad rock, too, one that sailed straight no matter what.

The team hadn't matched rocks the night before because their stones had all been great all week, said team leader Jim Waite. Miki, a buffed 5-foot-9, 195-pound leak survey technician for BC Gas, used to be big into weightlifting. Now it's tae kwon do. "For one thing, I'm getting older," he said. "It's harder to maintain (muscle bulk).

But curling's changing and while you still need a little strength, you need lots of cardio. It's intense sweeping for up to 25 seconds, then hustling back to the hack." Speaking of intense sweeping McAulay's final stone Tuesday was perfectly thrown, but it still needed Miki and Sveistrup to deliver it. It wound up shot, frozen Canada plays Norway (2-4)this morning (1:30 a.m. Vancouver time) and the U.S. (3-3) tonight (1 1 a.m.

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