WINNIPEG – Reigning Canadian champion Brad Jacobs defeated veteran Kevin Martin 5-4 Thursday to clinch a spot in Sunday’s final of the Canadian Olympic curling trials.
The battle of the best took Jacobs’ record to 6-0, but Martin goes to 5-1 and earns a berth into Saturday afternoon’s semifinal.
The other semifinalist won’t be determined until the men finish their seven-game Roar of the Rings round robin with morning draw Friday at the MTS Centre.
With Martin leading 4-3, Jacobs blanked the eighth and ninth ends to keep the hammer in the 10th.
Both rinks had a pair of rocks inside the four-foot, with a Jacobs’ stone almost dead centre in the button.
Martin then put up a guard, forcing the 28-year-old Jacobs to raise his own guard and score two points.
Martin, who won gold at the 2010 Olympics and silver in 2002, is looking for a fourth trip to the Games.
The 47-year-old was leading Jacobs 3-1 after four ends, but Jacobs scored two in the sixth to tie it up.
Martin looked like he was going to taken advantage of Jacobs’ misses in the seventh end and score two, but after he took out a Jacobs’ stone his own rock was just barely swept out of the rings for the 4-3 lead.
