Olympic curling champion Brad Jacobs needs extra end for opening win at National

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. – Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs opened the Syncrude National Grand Slam of Curling event with an 8-6 win over fellow Canadian Brock Virtue on Thursday.

Jacobs’ Sault Ste. Marie rink, which captured gold at the Sochi Olympics last month, scored two in the 11th end to secure the win over Virtue’s Regina team.a

Edmonton’s Kevin Martin, the Olympic champion from 2010, also needed an extra end to defeat Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 6-5.

In other second draw action, Oskar Eriksson of Sweden beat Soo-Hyuk Kim 7-3 while Mark Dacey of Halifax edged Pascal Hess of Switzerland 6-4 and Winnipeg’s Mike McEwan defeated Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher 7-1.

There are three more draws scheduled for Thursday.

The tournament is the third instalment of the Grand Slam of Curling with the series finale Players’ Championship scheduled for next month in Summerside, P.E.I.