Cameron turns heads with bronze medal performance at Scotties

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/02/2024 (303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kate Cameron’s Scotties dreams were dashed in a single end.

The New Bothwell skip had scratched, clawed and battled to reach the semi-finals of the Tournament of Hearts national championship, but her bid to make the final was undone after Jennifer Jones put up five points in the first end.

It was a dangerous end from the beginning, with a pair of attempted come-around draws falling short, leaving Jones with plenty of potential stones behind staggered guards.

Even with those errors, Cameron had a chance to sit first and second shot with her final stone of the end, but came in too fast, bouncing off her own stone near the button and leaving the veteran Jones, in her final Scotties, a double-takeout to score five, and all but win the game.

“It’s tough, especially against a team like that,” Cameron’s third Meghan Walter told the Winnipeg Free Press after the game.

“They’re not going to let a lead like that go easily.”

Despite the disappointing finish, the Scotties has to go down as a success for team Cameron. The rink only qualified thanks to a wild-card spot, and won two ‘win-or-go-home’ games against top competition to make the semi-finals and bring home the bronze medal.

“I think we turned a few heads and won a couple games people weren’t expecting. We knew that we could, we just had to stay in that mentality of one game at a time,” Cameron said after the loss.

“Our backs have been up against the wall since Thursday morning, so I think it’s pretty impressive to make it to Sunday at this point. We’re happy, we wish could’ve changed that first end. I think it would have been a bit of a different game, but yeah, we’re happy.”

Jones couldn’t author a fairy-tale ending to her career, falling in the final to Ontario’s Rachel Homan.

The third-place finish gave Cameron her third Scotties medal after finishing third while playing for Alberta’s Laura Walker in 2021 and picking up a silver medal in 2017 when she played for Michelle Englot.

It’s the first season since junior for Cameron as a skip.

“As much as that loss sucks right now, I think the girls are going to take a lot from that,” Cameron said.

“I think that’s one of probably the biggest games they’ve played in and there’s lots to learn from this whole week that we can pull from,” said Cameron. “Going forward, it’s just going to help make us better.”

The community of New Bothwell is gathering to celebrate Cameron’s accomplishment, and will be hosting an event in her honour Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. at the New Bothwell Rec Centre.

With files from Taylor Allen