Umpires to respond to athlete requests for three-end duration
A backlash from curling athletes and their NOCs has resulted in yet another significant change to the on-ice officials mandates at the Olympic curling competition in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Rachel Homan was not amused • Anil Mungal-The Curling NewsAs announced by World Curling at the start of Sunday’s final session draw:
Following a meeting with representatives of the competing National Olympic Committees, an update in the stone monitoring protocol has been confirmed, beginning with the evening session on Sunday 15 February.
This change in protocol will see the two umpires who had previously been actively monitoring athlete deliveries remain available in the field of play, but will now only monitor athlete deliveries at the request of the competing teams.
The umpires when requested will monitor deliveries for a minimum of three ends.
Friday night’s scrap between Sweden and Canada resulted in on-ice officials moving into position to monitor the hoglines, the first time human judges have been used in some 23 years.
Both Canada women’s skip Rachel Homan and Great Britain’s men’s second Bobby Lammie were recently penalized and their delivered stones yanked by the officials.