Tinker belle - Kleibrink’s second denies making sweeping change
Thursday, February 2nd, 2006SLAM! Sports - Curling - Tinker belle
Kleibrink’s second denies making sweeping change
By ANGELA MACISAAC – Calgary Sun
She’s doing what? With a little more than two weeks to go before the Shannon Kleibrink team opens play at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, second Glenys Bakker is tinkering with her throw.
“I just made a minor, technical change to my delivery,” she said reassuringly last night before a team fundraiser at the Calgary Winter Club.
“It’s just to do with my lineup, how I come out of the hack. I know it sounds bizarre, two weeks before the Olympics.
“Why would I tinker with anything but Tiger Woods, I’m sure, is tinkering with his swing all the time. It’s something I was perturbed about and didn’t like how I was throwing.”
And if a little switch in the hips improves her shot by 5%, it’ll be worth it.
“Oh yeah, that’s huge,” said the 43-year-old mother of two. “I’m willing to make whatever changes I need to make to get better.”
She’ll have plenty of time to get used to the change next week.
On Monday, Bakker, Kleibrink, third Amy Nixon and lead Christine Keshen depart for Kamloops, B.C., where they’ll defend the Strauss Canada Cup title they won last March.
They’ll be up against Regina’s Jan Betker, who won gold with the late Sandra Schmirler at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, the defending Scott Tournament of Hearts champ.
There also will be Kelowna’s Kelly Scott, whom Kleibrink defeated in the Olympic trials in Halifax to earn her trip to Turin, Italy.
“If we had to pick a field to play against before we go,” said Kleibrink, “this is it.
“We’re going to try to get our A game going but our approach has to be a little different this year. We have to do things as close as we can to what we’ll do at Olympics.”
That means regaining the focus the women don’t feel they had at a bonspiel in Bern, Switzerland, where they didn’t qualify for the playoff round. After a long flight from Calgary to Bern, they had less than a day’s rest before they jumped into the draw, which had them playing seven games over two days.
Nixon described the Canada Cup as good tuneup for the Olympics, which the foursome opens Feb. 13 against Sweden’s Anette Norberg.
“Canada Cup is a good opportunity for us to set down some routines again and use it a dress rehearal as a team to do things correctly, no matter what the outcome is,” said Nixon, 28.
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