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World Curling adjusted its umpire setup at the Winter Games again Sunday night after a contentious weekend at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.
In a statement, the sport’s governing body said the two umpires who had previously been monitoring athlete deliveries at the hog line will now only do so “at the request of competing teams.”
The development comes after Canadian women’s skip Rachel Homan had her first rock pulled in a game against Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni on Saturday night. Canada went on to drop an 8-7 decision in an extra end.
The umpire felt Homan had “double-touched” the rock on her throw. Curlers are not allowed to touch the stone’s granite after letting go of the handle.
Homan vehemently denied making an improper throw.
Rachel Homan had her first rock removed for a double touch violation, in an extra-end, 8-7 loss to Silvana Tirinzoni’s Swiss rink.
On Sunday, Great Britain’s Bobby Lammie had a stone removed for the same reason in a 9-4 win over Germany.
The latest umpire change came after a meeting with representatives of the competing teams, World Curling said.
“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 statement said.
“The umpires, when requested, will monitor deliveries for a minimum of three ends.”
A day earlier, World Curling said it would designate two officials to move between the four sheets but noted it was “not possible” to have umpires stationed at each hog line.
The initial change came after a tense men’s game between Canada’s Brad Jacobs and Sweden’s Niklas Edin on Friday night.
Swedish vice Oskar Eriksson complained that some Canadian players were ‘double-touching’ the rocks, an accusation that Canada vice Marc Kennedy firmly denied. Kennedy used profanity during the on-ice exchange and the video clip went viral.
Canadian curler Marc Kennedy and Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson had a yelling match mid-game.
Jacobs, Kennedy and teammates Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert took a 3-1 record into their game against China’s Xiaoming Xu on Sunday night.
But the controversy widened Sunday as increased surveillance of the matches resulted in the removal of a stone thrown by the British men’s team for the same alleged violation that burned the Canadians two days in a row.
In the ninth end of Britain’s robin-match against Germany, officials said Scottish curler Bobby Lammie had touched a stone after releasing it down the ice. Britain won the match 9-4.
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