Jennifer Jones bid a reluctant goodbye to a curling stage the place she’s carried out brilliantly in her profession.
Her Manitoba staff’s exit in Sunday’s 5-4 loss to Rachel Homan within the Scotties Event of Hearts remaining marked the top of an period in ladies’s curling.
The 49-year-old from Winnipeg declared earlier than the Canadian ladies’s championship in Calgary that her 18th look was her final.
Jones intends to retire from staff curling after this season, though she’s going to proceed to curve blended doubles competitively along with her husband Brent Laing.
Tied for probably the most Canadian curling titles with Colleen Jones at six and the one lady to skip an unbeaten staff in an Olympic Video games, two-time world champion Jones dominates debate over who’s the nation’s finest feminine roller of all time.
Her 11 appearances in Hearts’ finals, 39 profession playoff video games and 236 video games performed are all event information.
Jones stood within the centre of the home-end rings and acknowledged the standing ovation she obtained Sunday night time from a sold-out crowd of three,195 at WinSport Occasion Centre.
“I’m going to overlook everyone,” Jones stated. “I really like the sport. I really like being out right here. I really like what it’s achieved for our daughters. They consider that something is feasible due to curling.”
Workforce Manitoba-Jones skip Jennifer Jones, left, turns into emotional after being defeated by Workforce Ontario-Homan skip Rachel Homan, proper, within the remaining on the Scotties Event of Hearts in Calgary, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Jones is arguably leaving nonetheless on the high of her sport. She showcased her catalogue of photographs in Calgary with a number of exact attracts, finesse hits and rolls and runbacks to attain a number of factors in an finish.
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However draw weight eluded her Sunday, which was deadly towards Homan’s staff that excels in defending with big-hit weights.
Jones’ walk-off deflection off an Ontario stone effectively exterior the rings for a takeout on the button to win her first Hearts in 2005 continues to be in heavy rotation on curling spotlight reels.
“So far as I’m involved, she’s put modern-day ladies’s curling on the map,” stated four-time males’s world champion Glenn Howard, who coached Jones this season.
“She’s been a power for 20 some years now. Her uncanny capability to make the large shot is what sticks in my thoughts. She simply comes by means of clutch, clutch after clutch. She’s a winner.”
Competing on the degree of curling she has requires travelling to almost-weekly tournaments throughout Canada within the winter.
Jones has stated she desires to be bodily within the room extra with younger daughters Isabella and Skyla, as an alternative of story time and spelling homework performed just about by way of a display.
It could have been the emotion of the second, however Jones left the door open a crack to unretire.
“This second, it’s actually exhausting to say goodbye to be trustworthy,” Jones stated. “I’m identical to loving it. I don’t need my youngsters to look again on life and assume that their mum was by no means front-row centre cheering them on, like my mum was for me.
“In order that’s the most important motive, however they hold asking me to vary my thoughts, so we’ll see.”
Jones gained her half-dozen Canadian crowns between 2005 and 2018 after making her Hearts debut in 2002 in Brandon, Man.
Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer and Daybreak McEwen went undefeated at 11-0 to win a 2014 Olympic gold medal in Sochi, Russia. That foursome additionally gained a world title in 2018 in North Bay, Ont.
Jones gained her first world championship in 2008 in Vernon, B.C., with entrance finish of Officer and McEwen and third Cathy Overton-Clapham. Jones’ groups gained Canada’s Olympic ladies’s trials in each 2013 and 2021.
“A very fierce competitor. I’ve been enjoying towards her for a very long time,” stated Hearts bronze medallist Kate Cameron, who misplaced 12-7 to Jones in Sunday’ semifinal.
“Rising up curling in Manitoba, I believe she simply formed what plenty of athletes needed to be.”
After representing Canada on the Olympic Video games a second time in Beijing and ending fifth, her staff disbanded and Jones took over a younger staff of ladies nearly half her age.
Jones reached the 2023 Canadian remaining with them in Kamloops, B.C., the place she misplaced to Kerri Einarson and led them to the ultimate once more in Calgary.
Karlee Burgess, Emily Zacharias and Lauren Lenentine all underneath the age of 25 – and Emily’s sister Mackenzie who performed for Jones final season – had Jones to speed up them by means of the aggressive hole younger curlers expertise upon commencement from the junior ranks.
“We’re fortunate to have this chance to play in Jenn’s final Scotties,” Burgess stated throughout the event. “Not lots of people get to play with Jenn Jones.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
