Staff
So close, yet so far away.
Two Rainy River District curlers nearly found their way onto the national curling stage yesterday.
But Devlin’s Mike Badiuk and Travis Showalter of Nestor Falls were denied that opportunity as their rink, skipped by Thunder Bay’s Dylan Johnston, lost 6-3 to defending Olympic men’s champion Brad Jacobs from Sault Ste. Marie in yesterday’s final of the 2017 Travelers provincial men’s championship in Thunder Bay.
Jacobs will skip Northern Ontario for the third straight time and make his seventh appearance as a skip, all in the past eight years, at the Tim Hortons Brier from March 4-12 in St. John’s, NL.
Johnston, with Badiuk at third and Showalter playing lead, made the final after finishing second after the round-robin with a 5-2 record.
He then nosed out Chris Glibota (Copper Cliff) 8-7 in the semifinal, drawing the four-foot with his last rock with the score tied and the game on the line in the 10th end.
