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World Curling has addressed the cheating allegations that rocked Friday night’s round-robin game between Canada and Sweden, concluding that “no violations were recorded” during the umpires’ observations that followed the claims.
Tensions flared when Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson accused Canada’s Marc Kennedy of double-touching the stone. Videos shared online appeared to show Kennedy touching the stone with an extended finger after he released the handle.
The two opponents exchanged words when Eriksson said, “Maybe it’s okay touching the rock after the hog line, I don’t know.”
Kennedy then fired back, “Who’s doing it? I haven’t done it once, you can f— off.”
The two continued to exchange words, but it was Kennedy who used profanities to express his displeasure with the accusations.
“Come on Oskar, just f— off.”
World Curling released a statement Saturday addressing the controversy – both the accusations and Kennedy’s sportsmanship.
“Game Umpires are situated at the end of each sheet and physically cannot see every delivery infraction. However, when they are made aware of delivery issues, game umpires are positioned to observe the delivery for three ends. During this period of observation in the Friday evening game, there were no violations recorded,” the statement began, noting that video replay is not used during games and an umpire’s call is final.
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The sports governing body also addressed two rule concerns, including “double-touching” and touching the granite. According to the rules, players can retouch the handle multiple times, but “touching the handle after the hog line is not allowed and will result in the stone being removed from play.”
Additionally, the stone will be removed from play if the granite is touched at all during “forward motion.”
As a result of the allegations, World Curling said that two officials will be positioned to observe all deliveries beginning with Saturday’s games.
Canada was also issued a verbal warning from World Curling for Kennedy’s language during the game.
“During that meeting it was made clear to those officials that further inappropriate behavior, determined by rule R.19 would result in additional sanctions,” the statement read. According to the rule, Kennedy could face suspension if he commits another violation.
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