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Beijing Olympics: Jones wins overall at snooker challenge in Canada

Late misses helped decide a wild, exciting and rather shocking women’s final at the Canadian Olympic volley trials on Sunday.

Jennifer Jones brilliantly blew a golden chance to win in set 10. Tracy Fleury’s foul timing in extra time cost even more.

When the dust settled, Jones exited with an enthralling 6-5 victory to book her team’s ticket to the Beijing Sports Festival.

“We’re there to pick you up when you miss,” Jones said. “Not everyone can say the same and that’s really a big strength of our team.”

A gasp rose across SaskTel Center as Jones missed the opening shot for the win – usually a blow for the veteran skipper – with her stone rolling out leaving her only with a single ending game.

Jones realized halfway through the paper that the rock was in trouble. She angrily yelled at her teammates to try to hold it but it was a bit too curvy.

Fleury put her hand over her mouth in surprise.

“We thought we lost in the 10th for sure,” Fleury said. “I think Jen did 99% of the time, that shot. So we feel lucky to be able to go to a sideline and we really wanted to end there.

“But I didn’t make my last two pictures.”

Jones refocused and pressured Fleury into a challenging final throw. Jones backed up to the button behind a guard and Fleury missed a rerun attempt.

Jones followed with a guard Fleury rubbed on her final throw to give up the decisive point in a steal.

“I felt close but then it was like being drawn in a circle,” says Fleury.

The men’s final between Brad Gushue and Brad Jacobs was scheduled for Sunday night.

Jones and her team of Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman, Dawn McEwen and Lisa Weagle entered the Manitoba-based team’s duel with a massive experience advantage.

Jones won an Olympic gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and has won six women’s national titles. Fleury and her team of Selena Njegovan, Liz Fyfe and Kristin MacCuish, will make their first appearance in the test finale.

The initial feeling of restlessness seems to be a factor.

Launches were common late in the first game and Jones pressured early to create a quick steal. Jones buried a drawstring to force Fleury to touch, but she brushed off her stone and rolled away.

Njegovan’s numbers were low in the beginning. The skipper moved two of her own stones in a rerun attempt at the second end but her team recovered a single one.

Jones also made some mistakes when she sent a tie through the rounds late in the third, eventually settling for a hit for two. Fleury responded with a pair of her own and Lawes came through late on Thursday with a superb treble to create a gap.

The top-ranked Fleury team barely prevailed over most round-robin matches at the SaskTel Center.

Her perfect 8-0 score earned her the first seed and a day before the final. Jones won 5-3 in a round-robin match and beat Krista McCarville in Saturday’s semi-final.

Jones added an extra point late on Friday as her draw grazed the shot stone and landed on the edge of the quad. A measure that confirmed a single instead of a double, giving her a 4-3 lead.

In the eighth minute, Fleury tried to arrange forces but Jones hit the shot and rolled to save the space.

Njegovan upped her game in the second half. She made two excellent taps in a crowded house late ninth and Fleury followed with two decent draws.

Jones decided to give up the single to keep the hammer for the 10th round.

Kevin Koe and Rachel Homan skipped Team Canada’s entries at the 2018 Winter Olympics but both failed the podium.

Lawes and John Morris won the mixed doubles title in that year’s Olympic debut in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The Beijing Olympics are scheduled to take place from February 4 to 20.

The Canadian mixed doubles trials are set up December 28 to January 2 in Portage la Prairie, Man.

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