Highlights from the Osely Tournament.
According to the weather forecast, Friday was expected to be rainy, especially in the afternoon and evening. We had a team meeting in the morning, followed by individual activities. During my walk, there was an interesting moment when, while visiting an “antiques” shop, I unexpectedly came across a half-meter-tall bust of Antonín Zápotocký, and from the pedestal right next to it, Klement Gottwald, carved in stone, was glaring at me reproachfully. It threw me off a bit, but the salesman explained that they do a lot of business with a Czech partner, so I didn’t even bother trying to explain the historical context. It really did start raining in the afternoon, and we made our way through the rain to the curling hall for our only match of the day. Our opponent was from Sweden (Mabergs). We gained the lead but converted it into only one point in the first end of the match. But by the halfway point of the match, we had racked up three more points, so we were off to a solid start. Although the Swedish team improved in the second half of the match, we still secured the victory thanks to a precise final draw. Several notable curling personalities are watching the tournament, among whom Norwegian veteran Torger Nergård—second from the left in the photo—stands out statistically thanks to his six Olympic appearances (one gold and one silver). In addition to the blog author, Magnus Ramsfjell and Marco Mariani are also pictured. Tomorrow, the preliminary round of the tournament concludes with the final matches.